A LUCKY FEW HAD 'NO COMPETITION' AT ALL

By CJ Khaja Pasha in Bangalore

While the May 5 Assembly elections are being fought bitterly between close relatives, brothers and friends in many constituencies, the state also has a history of sending some of the candidates unopposed to the coveted House.

According to sources in the State Chief Electoral Office, the trend of candidates getting elected unopposed to the State Assembly started right from the first Assembly elections in 1952 and continued till the 1967 polls.
Late CM S Nijalingappa, who also served as president of the undivided AICC in the 1960s, had the distinction of getting elected to the Assembly unopposed twice in a row — from Bagal­kot Assembly constituency in May 1962 after the resignation of sitting Congress member B T Murnal and again in 1967 from Shiggaon constituency. In 1962 he went on to become CM.

Former CM late Devaraj Urs, the champion of the oppressed and Other Backward Classes in the state, also achieved a similar feat when he was declared elected unopposed during the 1962 Assembly elections from his traditional constituency of Hunsur in Mysore district.

Kadidal Manjappa, another former chief minister, was elected to the State Assembly unopposed as he was the lone candidate in the fray from Sringeri Assembly constituency in the 1957 elections.

The other leaders who achieved similar feats were T Channaiah (Mulbagal-Srinivaspur) in 1952, M N Naga­nur (Sampagaon), Annarao Basappa (Afzalpur), Jamadanda Sarwesh (Serum), Virupakshappa (Shahapur), Kunduru Rudrappa (Chennagiri), Manjayya Shetty (By­ndoor) and Manjappa Ullal (Karkala), all in 1957, G N Patil (Talikot) in 1962 and M Y Ghorpade (Sandur) in 1967.