Chincholi, the bellwether constituency in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Call it coincidence, but the party of the candidate that wins

Chincholi

, a reserved seat in Kalaburagi district, forms the government. Results of past elections have proved this to a large extent making it a bellwether seat of sorts for political parties.


The pattern goes back to 1989, prior to delimitation, when Chincholi was a general constituency. Congress veteran Veerandra Patil won the seat and his party returned to power after a decade. In the next elections, the seat was wrested by Vyjanath Patil of the Janata Parivar and the Janata Dal formed the government.

In 1999, the Congress won and SM Krishna became chief minister. It was the first time the Congress captured power in a decade. In 2008, BJP’s Sunil Vallyapur won, which also opened the gates for his party to form the government under BS Yeddyurappa — the first BJP government in the south.

In May 2018, present BJP MP from Kalaburagi, Umesh V Jadhav, won as a Congress candidate and the Siddaramaiah government was constituted. A year down the line, Jadav switched parties. He resigned from the Congress to contest the Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat in the May 2019 polls. In the byelection to the Chincholi assembly seat, the BJP gave the ticket to Jadhav’s son Avinash Jadhav, who won. Now, the BJP has dislodged the JD(S)-Congress coalition government and is waiting to stake claim to form the government.

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