Mysuru:  Going by the history of Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency poll results in all the 16 General Elections held so far, as many as 13 candidates from Congress and three candidates from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been elected to the Parliament.

Interestingly, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), which is a traditional opponent of Congress, has failed to open its account till today. It is a different matter that in this election, JD(S) and Congress have joined hands to  fight the BJP.

This constituency, all these years, was witnessing a triangular fight between Congress, JD(S) and the BJP since the last 28 years. But for the first time, the Mysuru-Kodagu constituency is now witnessing a straight contest between Congress and BJP as JD(S) ceded the seat to Congress as part of seat-sharing pact between the coalition partners.

In the first two general elections which were held in 1952 and 1957, Mysuru was a Dual-Member Lok Sabha seat in the then undivided Mysuru-Chamarajanagar district. Later, this constituency was reorganised into two LS seats as Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency and Chamarajanagar SC Reserve Constituency.

Since the 1962 general elections till 2009, eight Assembly segments of Mysuru district were included in Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency such as Krishnaraja,  Narasimharaja, Chamaraja, Chamundeshwari, Hunsur, Periyapatna, H.D. Kote and K.R. Nagar.

Mysuru- Kodagu Parliamentary constituency was carved in 2009 after the reorganisation of Parliamentary Constituencies undertaken by Kuldip Singh Committee.

Following the reorganisation, the Constituency has Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja, Chamaraja, Chamundeshwari, Hunsur and Periyapatna from Mysuru district and Virajpet and Madikeri Assembly segments in Kodagu district. Earlier, Virajpet and Madikeri were part of Mangaluru LS seat.

This Committee had also cancelled Bannur and Santhemarahalli constituencies which were in undivided Mysuru district. Only one person from Kodagu district — C.M. Poonacha — had represented the Parliament from Kodagu (when it was a ‘C State’) decades ago.

Mysuru and Kodagu districts are the tourist destinations of the State. If tobacco is the commercial crop of Mysuru, coffee, pepper and orange are cash crops of Kodagu. Only two persons from Mysuru district have become the Chief Ministers so far — D. Devaraja Urs and Siddharamaiah — and from Kodagu it was R. Gundu Rao.

Except for the victory of M. Gurupadaswamy of Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP) in 1992, Mysuru Constituency has been a strong citadel of Congress. But the Lotus (BJP) bloomed with its candidates getting elected for Parliament thrice from this Constituency in the year 1998 (C.H. Vijayashankar),  2004 (C.H. Vijayashankar) and 2014 (Pratap Simha).

The BJP and Congress candidates were elected alternatively in the elections held from 1998 to 2014. BJP candidates were losing deposits till 1998 polls in Mysuru when Thontadarya was BJP’s candidate most of the times. Despite the presence of strong leaders like Siddharamaiah, V. Sreenivasa Prasad, the Janata Parivar failed to open  its account.

Janata Dal candidate stood second in 1996 polls, secured third place in 1998, 1999, 2009 and 2014 polls and Janata Parivar candidate gave tough competition in the 1984 election.

JD(S) leaders like G.T. Devegowda, A.S. Guruswamy lost to their political rivals by a thin vote margin. Erstwhile Mysuru  Royal Family Member Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar was elected to Parliament form Mysuru four times but he was defeated in 1991 elections where he contested as BJP candidate.

In 2004 elections, Wadiyar was defeated and pushed to third place. So far, no Parliament Member elected from Mysuru has become a Union Minister.

Winners All

1. 1952 – M.S. Gurupadaswamy (now late) of Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP)

& N. Rachaiah (now late) of Congress from Mysore Dual Member LS seat

2. 1957- M. Shankaraiah (now late) – Congress, S.M. Siddaiah (now late) –

Congress from Dual Member LS seat

3. 1962 – M. Shankaraiah – Congress

4. 1967 – H.D. Thulasidas Dasappa (now late) – Congress

5. 1971 – H.D. Thulasidas Dasappa – Congress

6. 1977 – H.D. Thulasidas Dasappa – Congress

7. 1980 – M. Rajashekhar Murthy (now late) – Congress-I

8. 1984 – Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar (now late) – Congress

9. 1989 – Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar – Congress  

10. 1991 – Chandraprabha Urs (now late) – Congress

11. 1996 – Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar – Congress

12. 1998 – C.H. Vijayashankar – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

13. 1999 – Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar – Congress

14. 2004 – C.H. Vijayashankar – BJP

15. 2009 – A.H. Vishwanath – Congress

16. 2014 – Pratap Simha – BJP