Mysuru: In a nail-biting finish, the BJP has opened its account in border district – Chamarajanagar (SC-reserve) with the victory of V Srinivas Prasad.
Prasad scripted history in Chamarajanagar by winning the Lok Sabha election. This is his sixth win in the election to parliament. The 72-year-old, five-time MP returned to Lok Sabha election after two decades only to help the BJP make inroads into Congress bastion.
Prasad defeated Congress candidate R Dhruvanarayana by 1817 votes. The contest was nail-biting till its last round. Officials were cautious and took time before declaring him winner around 8 pm. Two –time MP Dhruvanarayana, who maintained the lead till 17th round fell behind Prasad later.
Prasad secured 568537 votes as against 566720 by Dhruvanarayana.
After his defeat in the Nanjangud by-election, Srinivas Prasad had announced that he will not be contesting in any election in the future but will be active in politics; but due to lack of able candidates to contest from reserved Chamarajanagar constituency he was forced to contest.
Modi wave and also NDA government’s decision to give ST tag to Parivar and Talavera Community which was their long pending demand also proved as an advantage for Srinivas Prasad. It is believed that more than 50 per cent of Parivar and Talawar Community people voted for the BJP.
Srinivas Prasad earlier contested Lok Sabha elections from Chamarajanagar seven times since 1980 and won four times for the Congress and once as Janata Dal (United).
