Hunsur: Even as politicians are making a beeline to Hunsur to campaign for their party candidates for the Dec.5 bypolls,  this strategic Assembly segment in Mysuru district is facing the bypolls for the fourth time in poll history.

The Assembly Constituency witnessed bypolls for the first time in 1972, when the then Hunsur MLA D. Kariappagowda quit the seat to make way for D. Devaraj Urs became the Chief Minister without being an MLA. Urs won the bypoll and the rest is history. 

Years later, Devaraj Urs’ daughter Chandraprabha Urs won on a Congress ticket in the  1989 Assembly polls. But Chandraprabha quit as MLA after she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991, thus paving the way for a bypoll, which was won by Chikkamadu of the Congress. 

Thereafter in 1994, the BJP which was a fledgling party then in the State, created history by winning the seat in the Assembly polls, with the party candidate declared elected as MLA. But Vijayashankar quit the seat after he won the Lok Sabha polls in 1998. In the bypolls that ensued, G.T. Devegowda, who contested on a JD(S) ticket, won by a huge margin.

Now the Assembly segment is witnessing the bypolls for the fourth time after A.H. Vishwanath, who was elected on a JD(S) ticket in the 2018 Assembly polls quit, citing differences with the party leadership and the bickerings within the JD(S)-Congress coalition Government. 

However, Vishwanath was disqualified by the then Assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar ahead of the trust vote moved by the then CM H.D. Kumaraswamy in July, 2019. Vishwanath is now contesting on a BJP ticket and is up against H.P. Manjunath of the Congress, Devaralli Somashekar of JD(S) and a few other Independents.