Congress retains Ullal assembly seat in coastal

The ruling JD (S)-BJP coalition has
suffered a major setback in Karnataka with the
Opposition Congress candidate U T Khader emerging
victorious in the keenly fought by-elections to Ullal
assembly constituency.

Announcing the victory of the Congress candidate after
fourteen rounds of counting on Tuesday, Election
Commission officials said Khader had defeated his
nearest BJP rival Chandrashekar Uchil by a margin of
8,032 votes in the by-elections held on Saturday.

While Khader polled 46,721 votes, Chandrashekar Uchil
secured 38,239 votes. JD (S) candidate Abubakr Natekal
polled 6,217 votes and lost his deposit. CPM’s
Balakrishna Shetty and independent candidate J
Balakrishna Shetty, who secured 4,803 and 1,196
respectively, too forfeited their deposits.

Ullal assembly constituency in coastal Karnataka was
considered a Congress bastion in view of a sizeable
number of voters belonging to the Muslim community.
But, the decision of the JD (S) to field a Muslim
candidate had queered the electoral pitch and raised
BJP’s hopes of a victory.

But, Khader proved all calculations wrong when he
defeated the BJP candidate by 8,032 votes during the
counting process, which appeared to be a seesaw battle
till the initial few rounds of counting. Though the
counting process began with BJP candidate leading till
the fifth round, the Congress candidate bounced back
and overtook his rival in the latter rounds of
counting.

The by-elections to Ullal assembly constituency had
been necessitated by the death of Khader’s father U T
Fareed, who had defeated the BJP candidate by a margin
of 6,696 votes during the 2004 polls.

A beaming Khader sought to thank the voters of Ullal
assembly constituency for his victory and promised to
bring welfare programmes that would help the large
number of people below poverty line in the
constituency. “There are many people in Ullal, who
deserve attention, like poor fishermen, displaced
workers, beedi rollers, women and other marginalized
classes”, he said.

Khader also two major challenges in his role as an MLA
of Ullal. “I want to keep Ullal free from communal
tensions and control sea erosion”, he said.

The Congress party has described the outcome of Ullal
by-elections as a “rejection” of communal politics
practiced by the JD (S)-BJP coalition. “The voters
have stood by the secular principles of the Congress
party”, former Chief Minister and Leader of the
Opposition Dharam Singh said.

But, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy refused to attach
much significance to the by-poll results. Seeking to
attribute Khader’s victory to sympathy factor,
Kumaraswamy said Congress party fielded the son of
late MLA U T Farid and rode on the sympathy wave.

To a question, he said there was no threat to the JD
(S)-BJP coalition in the State on account of the Ullal
by-poll results.