In Karnataka Assembly Election 2023, the Udupi constituency, which voted on May 10, saw Bhartiya Janata Party candidate Yashpal Suvarna win against Congress candidate Prasadraj Kanchan with a margin of 32,776 votes, as per the Election Commission of India (ECI).

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Udupi constituency has more than 5 crore registered voters who were eligible to exercise their franchise. Udupi is considered an important constituency as it grabbed the headlines in 2022 because of the hijab controversy.

The term of the 224-member Legislative Assembly of Karnataka is scheduled to end on May 24, 2023. Udupi is one of 104 Assembly seats and was won by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018. As per the Karnataka Election Information Centre, the constituency has 2,03,801 eligible voters, of whom 1,05,015 are female and 98,786 are male. The constituency had 4 third-gender voters as of 2018.

In this year’s Karnataka State Assembly elections, BJP had fielded Yashpal Anand Suvarna against Congress candidate Prasadraj Kanchan. Suvarna was given the ticket to contest the election after the saffron party shunted out incumbent and three-time MLA Raghupathi Bhat.

According to media reports, Bhat had been confident of getting the ticket again but was denied because people from the constituency demanded a candidate from the Other Backward Castes (OBC). Later, he fell in line and even campaigned for Suvarna.

Congress candidate Prasadraj Kanchan, on the other hand, is also a new entrant and an automobile entrepreneur. Both Kanchan and Suvarna are from the fisher community. Udupi is among the five constituencies in the coastal districts where the BJP did not allow the sitting MLAs to contest.

Previous assembly elections in the Udupi constituency

Of the eight victories of the Congress in the constituency, members of one family (Madwaraj family) have won six times. The ruling BJP opened its account in 1983 when its candidate VS Acharya won.

In the 2018's Karnataka election, BJP's Bhat managed to win after securing 84,946 votes. The saffron party candidate defeated Indian National Congress '(INC) Pramod Madhwaraj by a margin of 12,044 votes.

After the 2018 polls, Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) and Congress formed a coalition government with HD Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister. However, the coalition government collapsed in 2019 following the resignation of 13 rebel Congress and JDS MLAs. The BJP subsequently formed a government with BS Yediyurappa becoming the Chief Minister.

In 2021, the BJP strongman resigned from the CM's post after which Basavaraj Bommai became the CM.

(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)

First Published:May 12, 2023 4:13 PM IST