On May 13, Karnataka Assembly Results 2023 were announced. Independent candidate and Sangh leader Arun Kumar Puthila caused a major change in the vote share in the Puttur constituency. He secured 62,458 votes. Congress’s Ashok Kumar Rai got 666,07 votes, and BJP’s Asha Thimmappa got 37,558 votes.
RSS member and Hindutva leader Puthila played a crucial role in cutting BJP’s votes in the constituency, however, it is pertinent to note that the Hindutva leader ended up getting more votes compared to BJP’s official candidate. Puthila was an aspirant for the BJP ticket, but the party chose Thummappa instead. As a result, Puthila decided to contest the election independently.
The Sangh Parivar is believed to have a deep impact on the Puttur constituency in Dakshina Kannada. It is also the operational area of Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel. However, Puthila’s supporters, who hail from Sangh primarily, were not pleased when former Dakshina Kannada Zila Panchayat President Asha Thimmappa Gowda was chosen as the candidate based on “caste equations”, reports suggested.
The supporters said BJP should have come out of the caste-based calculations and given a ticket to Puthila, who his supporters saw as an upholder and protector of Hindutva in the region. BJP and Sangha Parivaar leaders tried convincing Puthila to withdraw from contesting elections but failed. In the end, he ended up getting far more votes compared to BJP’s candidate, however, could not register a victory.
The 2023 Karnataka Assembly Election results clearly showed that the votes that could have gone to BJP, giving it a sweeping victory, got divided between Puthila and Gowda. On the other hand, Congress gained traction from it and secured xyz votes. Notably, in the 2018 elections, BJP’s Sanjeeva Matandoor, who belongs to the Gowda community, secured 90,073 votes, and Congress Shakunthala T Shetty secured 70,596 votes. If the votes had not been divided in these elections, BJP would have registered a sweeping win.
Puttur was an important constituency because of the fact that banned terrorist organisation PFI’s political wing SDPI gave a ticket to BJYM leader Praveen Nettaru’s murder accused Shafi Bellare. SDPI’s candidate lost his deposit on the seat.