BENGALURU: The 2023 Assembly poll in Kanakapura Assembly constituency proved to be a lopsided contest as Congress nominee and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) D.K. Shivakumar trounced his nearest rival, BJP nominee and Minister for Revenue R. Ashok by a margin of about 1.25 lakh votes and with this win, he made it to the Assembly for 8th time on a trot. His previous victory margin was about 79,000 votes.
The victory was also the 8th straight win for Shivakumar in the Assembly elections. He made his maiden entry into the Assembly winning 1989 from Sathanur Assembly seat and retained in 1994, 1999 and 2004 elections.
In 2008 during the delimitation of Assembly seats in Karnataka, Sathanur and Kanakapura Assembly seats were merged and a new Kanakapura seat came into existence. Shivakumar maintained his winning formula and won 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023 elections.
In the previous elections, Shivakumar faced JDS nominees as his main rival and to halt the success run of Congress leader in Kanakapura, Bharatiya Janata Party fielded Minister for Housing R. Ashok and he too lost against Shivakumar.
Shivakumar’s prominent wins in Assembly polls are against JDS leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Sathanur seat. Shivakumar defeated Kumaraswamy by a margin of 14, 387 votes.
His other major victory was against JDS nominee and former minister P.G.R. Sindhia in Kanakapura seat in 2013 election. Then, Sindhia was defeated by Shivakumar by a margin of 31, 424 votes.
A close confidante of Shivakumar D.M. Vishwanath told Deccan Chronicle that the amount of development works carried out by Shivakumar made him the formidable candidate in Kanakapura and people remembered his contributions to the development of the seat.
Even the development works of Shivakumar had come in praise from BJP leader and Minister for Health D. Sudhakar who a couple of months ago had praised the works in Kanakapura seat under Panchayat Raj and Rural development.
It is said that voters of Kanakapura seat voted Shivakumar considering him to be the next Chief Minister and he being the CM would develop the seat further.
After the results, Shivakumar was emotional and recalled his jail stay (Tihar) over his alleged money laundering case and visit of former president of All India Congress Committee Sonia Gandhi to meet him in the jail.
