Mysuru: The by-election for Gundulpet and Nanjangud assembly segments will be held on April 9 and the results will be announced on April 13.
While Gundlupet constituency fell vacant after untimely death of sitting MLA Mahadeva Prasad, Nanjangud constituency is running into a by-poll owing to resignation of sitting MLA Srinivas Prasad from the Congress party as well as the Assembly.
The by-polls are nothing less than an acid test for the Congress as both the constituencies were in Congress kitty and now it has become imperative for the Congress to retain the two seats by hook or by crook.
Political pundits predict that while the Congress may cash on the ‘sympathy’ factor in Gundlupet, Nanjangud looks like a hard nut to crack. The Congress has cleverly fielded Mahadeva Prasad’s wife Geetha Mahadeva Prasad from Gundlupet. But, the scenes in Nanjangud are quite different. Srinivas Prasad, an one time Congressman and close friend of CM Siddaramaiah broke all ties with the Congress and also the CM and joined the BJP. He has nurtured seething anger against the Congress and the CM and this anger will surely go against the Congress. Srinivas Prasad’s follower base is his strength and the Dalit strongman is all set to crush the Congress. Another draw back for the Congress, as per sources, can be its candidate. After lot of struggle, the Congress decided to field Keshavamurthy Kalale, who joined the Congress after quitting the JD(S) recently. But, sources say that Kalale is not a match for Srinivas Prasad.
The candidates will be filing their nominations from March 14 and the scrutiny of the nominations will be done on March 22. The candidates can withdraw their candidature on March 24.
However, elections are always unpredictable as the obvious turns out to be false and the unimaginable becomes a reality. Only April 13th will bring out in open the fate of the contestants for the two prestigious constituencies.
