Can film stars break state’s 50-year independent jinx?

BENGALURU: One is a yesteryear heroine and wife of a late famous actor-politician. The other is mostly known for villainous roles and is extremely popular across several states. Other than films, they both have one thing in common: Both are vying to go to Parliament.

Sumalatha Ambareesh

filed her nomination papers on Wednesday as an independent from Mandya, while Prakash Raj has begun work on his candidature as an independent from Bengaluru Central. While it is too early to speculate on their chances of winning, they will make history should they win since Karnataka has not elected an independent to the Lok Sabha in the past 52 years.

Unlike in assembly elections, the electorate rarely votes for

independents

as their MPs. This is true across the country (see graphic), and Karnataka has not voted differently.

The last person who won as an independent from Karnataka was DD Dattatraya in 1967, when the state was still called Mysore. According to data from the Election Commission of India, Dattatraya had contested from Kanara constituency and defeated NG Vaman from Congress by more than 25,000 votes. The only other time that an independent was elected from the state was in 1957, when Sugandhi Murigappa Siddappa defeated Dubey Rajaram Giridharlal of the Congress by 10,936 votes.

Sumalatha will face fellow debutant Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, but she has started her campaign on a high with two leading Kannada cinema heroes Darshan and Yash publicly backing her.

Rai is working more quietly. He will contest from Bengaluru Central, where BJP’s PC Mohan is the sitting MP. The Congress is likely to field Rizwan Arshad.

While refusing to comment on specific cases, experts TOI spoke to reiterated how independents stand very little chance of parliamentary elections.

Independents who won

1967

* Constituency: Kanara

* Total electorate: 3,09,326

* Winner: DD Dattaraya | 1,43,287 votes

* Runner-up: NG Vaman (Cong) | 1,15,490 votes

* Winning margin: 27,797 votes

1957

* Constituency: Bijapur North

* Total electorate: 3,53,151

* Winner: Sugandhi Murigappa Siddappa | 88,209 votes

* Runner-up: NG Vaman (Cong) | 77,273 votes

* Winning margin: 10,936 votes

— Source: Election Commission Of India


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