Congress party sources state that a pre-poll survey indicated that Umesh Meti, candidate for the Bagalkot Assembly constituency seat, had a better chance at winning than his siblings.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The Bagalkot Assembly constituency, which encompasses the city and surrounding areas, is facing bypolls owing to the death of former Minister H.Y. Meti. There are nine candidates in the fray, but the real fight is between Veerabhadrayya aka Viranna Charantimath of the BJP, a three-time legislator, and first-timer Umesh Hullappa Meti of the Congress. It is expected to be a close contest.
The Congress leadership faced some difficulty in choosing its nominee as three of the four children of the late Meti — Mallikarjun, Umesh, and Mahadevi — were aspirants.
Finally, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah convinced the siblings to back Umesh, the younger son. Party sources say this was because a pre-poll survey had indicated that he had a better chance. “Mr. Umesh used to handle grievances of rural voters, and Mr. Mallikarjun handled the city when their father was the MLA. We are banking on rural votes, and thus the choice of Mr. Umesh was clear,” said a Congress leader.
Law and order
BJP leaders say they hope to leverage the recent law and order disturbance following the stone-pelting on a Shivaji Jayanti procession to consolidate Hindu votes. However, none of the saffron party campaigners have raised this in public yet. Satish Jarkiholi, a Congress leader who is among those in charge of the Bagalkot bypoll campaign, told reporters recently that this incident would have minimal impact. “In fact, it may help the Congress. It has helped us by uniting our factions,” he claimed.
Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, expelled BJP leader, has joined the campaign “for the cause of Hindutva” and to honour his friendship with Mr. Charantimath. “Initially, the BJP leadership had hesitated to involve Mr. Yatnal, a fierce critique of party president B.Y. Vijayendra, as it feared embarrassment to the family and supporters of B.S. Yediyurappa. However, they managed to convince Mr. Vijayendra after consulting some senior leaders,’’ said a BJP leader.
Issues before voters
Among the key issues before the people is the long-pending demand of increased compensation for those who lost land to the Upper Krishna Project. Another issue is the plan to expand the irrigated area for the implementation of Phase 3 of the project. This issue has dominated polls here for several decades.
During their recent visit to the city, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister and Irrigation Minister D.K. Shivakumar announced that they will spend over ₹30,000 crore on the third phase and resolve issues relating to compensation.
In his Budget speech, the Chief Minister set aside funds for the government medical college in Bagalkot. BJP nominee Viranna Charantimath criticised it and said the first announcement was made in 2016, but the Congress had failed to set up the college. Congress leaders have countered this, saying it was Mr. Charantimath who had stalled it to protect the interests of a medical college run by his society.
Increase in electorate
The constituency has seen a five-fold increase in the number of electors between 1952 and 2026. There were 49,168 voters in the first general election and the number has risen to 2,59,797. On an average, there has been an increase of 20,000 voters every five years after 2008, which coincided with the delimitation. Before that, the increase in the number of voters between two polls was an average of 10,000.
Published – April 04, 2026 07:45 pm IST
