Belthangadi: Harish Poonja is the BJP MLA from Belthangadi for the second term. BJP’s Poonja secured 1,01,004 votes defeating his rival Rakshit Shivaram of Congress by a margin of 18,216 votes in the May 10 polls. Rakshit Sivaram got 82,788 votes. A total of 8 candidates contested in the Belthangadi Vidhan Sabha constituency. Among them, Ashraf Alikunha of JDS got 556, independent candidate Janardhan Bangera got 278, Rakshit Shivaram of Congress got 82,788, Harish Poonja of BJP got 1,01,004, Akbar of SDPI got 2513, Aditya Narayan of Sarvodaya Karnataka Party. Kollaje has 454, Shailesha RJ from Tulunada party. He got 308 votes and independent candidate Mahesh Atto got 214 votes.
A total of 1,88,115 votes were cast in the constituency. Out of them 341 votes were rejected while 892 votes were nota. Counting of votes started at 8 am at NT ITK in Suratkal and 1,515 votes were received for Poonjar in postal voting. Rakshit got 948 votes. From the opening round till the 18th round, Poonja maintained the lead. Poonja’s direct competitor here was the Congress.
It is a surprise that the party did not vote as expected. The party had calculated that the BJP would get more than 1,20,000 votes. Voters were impressed with the development work done in the last five years and it was expected to win by more than 40,000 to 50,000 margin based on Hindutva, party organization and personality of the candidate. But the effect is different. Last time, in 2018, Poonja had secured 98,417 votes and won by a margin of 22,974 votes. This time the margin of votes is 4,758 votes less than last time.
17 elections were held in Belthangi from 1952 to 2023 and BJP won for the 6th time.
. Earlier, Vasant Bangera, Prabhakar Bangera twice, Harish Poonja contested and won twice and became MLA from BJP.
There is a discussion going on everywhere as to why Harish Poonjar got less votes. In the taluk, the party has been strong from the organizational point of view. There are four times more workers than the Congress. There are various committees from taluk to booth level which are strong. More than 20,000 workers have gone door to door three to four times to meet voters and ask for votes. They have done it according to how they should work with discipline. Hundreds of workers of Congress party have joined BJP. MLAs have brought more than 3,500 grants and arranged road-bridge, water and other basic facilities. Assam Chief Minister, leader Annamalai has come for the campaign. The analysis is going on everywhere that the MLAs who have taken up the resolve of the new belt have won or lost. The leaders of the constituency were confident that they would win by a margin of 40,000 to 50,000 votes. In this case, the question arose as to who gave and held hands. Caste politics has been going on in Belthangadi since ancient times. It is customary for candidates to win on the basis of Billava and Okkaliga votes. This time if Billa holds hands or Okkaliga gives hands? There is a talk going on. On the other hand, it is said that the voters are leaning towards the Congress due to the oppression of the BJP’s local workers.
