By Mohan Kayaka

Mysore/Mysuru: The Krishnaraja Constituency of the city may witness a triangular contest this time. S.A. Ramdas of the BJP is the sitting MLA and is eyeing his fifth win from here. Ramdas had previously won from here in 1994, 1999, 2008 and 2018.

The Constituency covers as many as 19 Wards of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) including areas in the heart of the city such as Agrahara, Lakshmipuram, Sunnadakeri, Gundu Rao Nagar, Siddarthanagar, Alanahalli, Chamundipuram, Krishnamurthypuram, Vidyaranyapuram, Jayanagar, Ashokapuram, Vishweshwaranagar, J.P. Nagar, Srirampura, Aravindnagar, Vivekanandanagar, Ramakrishnanagar, Kuvempunagar, Kurubarahalli, etc.

While the JD(S) has already declared K.V. Mallesh, a former MCC Corporator of the Lingayat community as its candidate, the BJP and the Congress are yet to announce their candidates.

Krishnaraja Constituency is known for low voter turnout ever since its formation. The Constituency recorded a poor voting percentage at 58.76 percent in the 2018 Assembly polls and the authorities have launched a widespread campaign to educate the voters on the importance of their votes.

The Constituency has been witnessing a direct battle between Congress and the BJP for the past few years. But this time, the JD(S) candidate K.V. Mallesh is making a serious bid to wrest the seat, which is considered the stronghold of the two National parties.

The Congress has won here 7 times, the BJP 5 times, the erstwhile Janata Party 2 times and JD(S) and independents one time each, in the 16 elections held thus far. With such a record of political parties, it is to be seen which party will have control over the Constituency in next month’s Assembly polls — whether the BJP will be able to retain the seat, the Congress regain the seat or the JD(S) springs up a surprise.

The new entrant to electoral politics, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) too is trying its luck here for the first time and it is to be seen what impact the party could make in this Constituency, which has a large number of educated voters.

VOTER DATA

The Krishnaraja Constituency has 2,47,157 voters, 1,20,910 of them male, 1,26,222 female and 25 others. It is interesting to note that women outnumber men voters in this key Constituency of the city, with most parts of it being around the famed Mysore Palace and old as well as new localities. There are 265 polling booths and there are 1,436 specially challenged voters, 2,940 new voters and 12,174 voters above 80 years of age.