Mysore/Mysuru: Maddikere Gopal has been elected as the Mysuru District Kannada Sahitya Parishat President in the polls held yesterday. This is the second time that Gopal has been elected to the post.

Election was held yesterday at Maharani’s Arts College for Women on JLB Road and the counting of votes was taken up after voting concluded at 4 pm. The district recorded a poor voter turnout of 42.76 percent,with only 5,772 of the 13,381 voters exercising their franchise.

Maddikere Gopal, defeated his rivals Writer Bannur K. Raju and advocate K.S. Nagaraj by a comfortable margin to gain victory. While Gopal bagged 2,565 votes, Bannur K. Raju secured 1,601 votes and K.S. Nagaraj 1,485 votes. A total of 71 votes were found invalid. Maddikere Gopal with 2,565 votes was declared elected by a margin of 964 votes, with his nearest rival Bannur K. Raju securing 1,601 votes.

Bannur Raju, who came second, succeeded in gaining lead only in his native place Bannur, where he secured 279 votes as against 154 votes bagged by Maddikere Gopal and 39 by K.S. Nagaraj. 

Mysuru Taluk Tahsildar K.R. Rakshith was the Returning Officer. This is the second term for Gopal, who had first served as  Mysuru District Kannada Sahitya Parishat President from 2008 to 2011.

Speaking to presspersons after being declared the winner, Maddikere Gopal said that his victory was not personal but the victory of the voters. Thanking all those who supported him, Gopal said that he would work sincerely and honestly for the cause of Kannada land and language.

Even before the results were announced, Gopal’s supporters sensing  his victory as he managed an unassailable lead after every round of counting, began to burst crackers on the busy JLB road. But Gopal who arrived late at the counting venue – Maharani’s Arts College for Women, due to health issues, was greeted with a Mysore Peta and garlands.

The bursting of crackers halted traffic near the venue for some time, which caused a lot of inconvenience for motorists. 

Former District Mysuru Kannada Sahitya Parishat Presidents Y.D. Rajanna, M. Chandrashekar and Manasa, Kannada activists K.S. Shivaram, Aravind Sharma, Mugur Nanjundaswamy, Dairy Venkatesh, Ashok and others were present.

New Presidents in other Districts

Mandya: C.K. Ravikumar Chamalapura was re-elected as Mandya District Kannada Sahitya Parishat President. Ravikumar who bagged 6,546 votes, defeated his nearest rival S. Krishna Swarnasandra (4,384 votes) by a big margin of 2,072 votes. K.M. Krishnegowda Keelara  bagged the third place with 3,681 votes.

Kodagu: M.P. Keshava Kamath has been declared elected as President. Kamath defeated his nearest rival Lokesh Sagar by a margin of 131 votes. Kamath secured 922 votes, while Lokesh could manage 791 votes. A total of 1,723 out of 2,469 voters had exercised their franchise and 10 votes were declared invalid.

Chamarajanagar: M. Shylakumar was declared elected as the President. Shylakumar, a Painter, who bagged 1,316 votes, defeated his nearest rival C.M. Narasimhamurthy (673 votes) by a margin of 643 votes.

Hassan: Prof. H.L. Malleshgowda, was declared elected as President. Prof. Malleshgowda, who bagged 4,854 votes, won by a huge margin of 2,081 votes against his nearest rival Ravi Nakalagodu, who managed just 2,773 votes. Ganjalagudu Gopalagowda came a distant third with 487 votes. Meanwhile, the counting of votes for the State President’s  post will be taken up at Bengaluru on Nov.24. The poll witnessed a low percentage as only 1.60 lakh out of the 3.10 lakh voters exercised their franchise, with Kodagu District recording the highest percentage of polling (71.18 percent) and Bengaluru Urban District, the lowest (28.88 percent). Kolar, Haveri, Gadag and Chikkaballapur districts too recorded a good turnout of over 67 percent, while Yadgir, Mysuru, Belagavi and Dakshina Kannada districts recorded a turnout of less than 45 percent.