Bangalore | Saba Khan : Karnataka Legislative council Elections 2021 were held for 25 constituencies out of the 25 candidates only 2 Muslim candidates were contesting from Congress party.
Neither BJP nor JDS had filed any muslim candidate through out the state.
As the results are declared both the muslim candidates have registered mixed results where Mr Saleem Ahmed of Dharwad district has registered his victory by securing 1860 votes against Mr Pradeep Shettar of BJP who has got 1386 votes.
On the other hand Mr Yusuf Shareef (KGF Babu) who was contesting for the first time from Bengaluru Urban has faced defeat against Mr Gopinath Reddy of BJP who won by 1277 votes against 830 votes of Mr Yusuf Shareef.
The Victory of Saleem Ahmed was a forgone conclusion with Congress and BJP fielding only one candidate eachย in Dharwad-Gadag-Haveri seat where there were 2 seats for elections. This was in a statewide pattern where Bjp and congress appeared to have agreed upon a pact in 5 seats and fielded one candidate each tin such double seat districts. Despite this, the old horse that he is, Saleem Ahmed didn’t take the election lightly and his past experience as the MLC came in handy and he was able to put a spectacular campaign in place. Another factor that helped him was the Sitting MLC Srinivas Mane’s victory in MLA elections from Hangal. Dr Mane too put in all efforts to reciprocate the effort put by Saleem Ahmed in Hangal by-election.
Pic Courtesy: The Cognate
On the other hand The Bengaluru candidate who was filed with lot of media glare and pomp with him being the richest candidate. Yusuf Shariff was first time candidate and it was a demoralising defeat, where he lost a Congress stronghold with heavy margin. Congress had lost this seat for the first time in 2014 by mere 12 votes.
These elections shud be a lesson to congress which has off late started to impose the leadership on Muslims based upon either money power or past bureaucratic experience, instead of organisational or community work background. This election shows that the inexperienced and Money Bags candidates would become a burden to not just party but also end up losing seats for them. This particular decision by Congress should haunt them given the antics and media scrutiny that accompanied the candidate, and the eventual defeat.
