By Mohan Kayaka

All political parties have begun vying to have the blessings of Lord Srikanteshwaraswamy, the presiding deity of the Temple Town of Nanjangud. As without his support, it is impossible to be an MLA of this holy place that is a key Assembly segment of the Mysuru district.

Nanjangud town, the seat of Lord Srikanteshwara, is popularly known as Dakshina Kashi and is visited by lakhs of devotees every year from different parts of the country. The town is also an industrial hub, with many industries of repute located here.

The Constituency which was first formed as a twin-member seat in 1952, has now been converted as SC Reserved Constituency since 2008 Assembly polls. In the first election held in 1952, Hejjige Linganna (Independent) and M. Madaiah of Congress got elected from the twin-member seat, which became a single-member seat in the subsequent election held in 1957.

In 2008, the Constituency became a reserved seat for Scheduled Caste with V. Sreenivasa Prasad of the Congress winning the seat. Prasad won again in 2013 and a couple of years later he quit the Congress and joined the BJP, which necessitated the by-poll in 2017 which he however lost to Kalale N. Keshavamurthy of the Congress.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, B. Harshavardhan, son-in-law of Sreenivasa Prasad, won the seat for the BJP, thus avenging the defeat of his father-in-law Prasad. Harshavardhan defeated Kalale Keshavamurthy by a margin of nearly 13,000 votes and now he hopes to retain the seat for the BJP.

In the past, M. Mahadev (popularly known as ‘Benki’ Mahadev) had won thrice on a Congress ticket, while D.T. Jayakumar too had won thrice on a Janata Parivar ticket and the tussle between the two, threw up an interesting saga for over two decades.

This time, the battle will be mainly between the BJP and Congress. The Congress has already announced the candidature of Darshan Dhruvanarayan, son of late KPCC Working President and former MP R. Dhruvanarayan who passed away recently.

The Congress announced the candidature of Darshan due to the sentiment in his favour following the death of his father who was popular among the masses and was widely tipped to be the Congress candidate. Darshan is likely to ride heavily on the sympathy wave that has been generated widely across the segment.

VOTER DATA

The Constituency has a total of 2,18,201 voters, including 1,08,812 male, 1,09,383 female and 6 other voters. Like most of the other Constituencies in the district, women voters outnumber men. There are 3,107 physically challenged voters and 7,572 voters above 80 years of age.

THESE WERE ELECTED FROM 1952 TO 2018

Year	MLA	Party
1952	Hejjige Linganna	Independent
(Twin Seats)	M. Madaiah	Congress
1957	P. Mahadevaiah	Congress
1957 (By-poll)	J.B. Mallaradhya	PSP
1962	N. Rachaiah	Congress
1967	L. Srikantaiah	Independent
1972	K.B. Shivaiah	Congress
1978	K.B. Shivaiah	Indira Congress
1983	M. Mahadev	Congress
1985	D.T. Jayakumar	Janata Party
1989	M. Mahadev	Congress
1994	D.T. Jayakumar	Janata Dal (S)
1999	M. Mahadev	Congress
2004	D.T. Jayakumar	Janata Dal (S)
2008	V. Sreenivasa Prasad	Congress
2013	V. Sreenivasa Prasad	Congress
2017 (By-poll)	Kalale N. Keshavamurthy	Congress
2018	B. Harshavardhan	BJP