Prahlad Joshi wins from Dharwad, Karnataka

Updated: Jun 4th, 2024

Prahlad Joshi

Union minister Prahlad Joshi has won from Dharwad parliamentary seat in Karnataka.

The Dharwad parliamentary constituency in Karnataka was considered a high-profile seat where Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi, was seeking reelection for the fifth time in a row. 

The Congress party had fielded a dark horse, Vinod Asuti, a young leader and a close associate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The party was hoping to get through with the help of the Kuruba community from which Vinod hails and the minorities and Dalits.

Pralhad Joshi was confident of an easy win. The BJP was banking on the dominant Lingayat votes in the region and also the Hindutva vote bank among all castes.

The Congress had planned to field former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar from Dharwad against Joshi. However, Shettar returned to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The constituency has about 18 lakh voters. Among them, the minorities, OBCs and Dalits comprise 10 lakh voters.

The Hubballi Idgah Maidan dispute in which 6 people were killed in police firing in 1994, played a major role in the rise of the BJP in Dharwad, in north Karnataka and in the entire state. It had become a national flashpoint. Joshi was in the forefront at that time as the president of the “Raastra Dhwaj Gourav Rakshana Samithi”.

Earlier it was known as Dharwad North MP seat. Congress candidate Vinay Kulkarni had got 4.79 lakh votes against Joshi who had won with a margin of 2.05 lakh votes. In 2014, Joshi had defeated Vinay Kulkarni by 1.11 lakh votes.

Dharwad constituency comprises of Navalgund, Kundgol, Dharwad, Hubballi-Dharwad East, Hubballi-Dharwad Central, Hubballi-Dharwad West, Kalghatgi and Shiggaon assembly constituencies. The BJP and the Congress had won four seats each in the 2019 assembly election.

Jamkhandi said that Joshi became an MP unexpectedly when Vijay Sankeshwar, an industrialist who represented the BJP three times, quit the party.

“Joshi had brought all central government schemes to the region. Electrification of railways, doubling of railway tracks, new trains, Vande Bharat and Sampark Kranthi trains. Hubballi Airport was extended and developed. IIT, IIIT institutes came to Dharwad,” he had stated earlier.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)

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