Bangalore, May 14: Elections 2004 saw several stars getting into the battle of the ballot with stars in their eyes. It saw several bureaucrats administering early retirements to begin a new innings in either Parliament House or the Vidhana Soudha. But barely a handful of them managed to win over people with their charm, the Judgement Day proved on Thursday. The Kannada film industry is, in fact, paralysed by the shock-results of its star performers in E-2004. Of the 15 film personalities who ran the high hurdles, only five tasted victory while nine others returned home empty-handed on Thursday. For instance, Anant Nag, who had been a minister in the J H Patel Government, lost his deposit after Chief Minister S M Krishna won from the Chamarajpet constituency. For the actor, who bagged barely 5,052 of the 47,000-plus votes polled, this was the second time in a row that he was was forfeiting his deposit, after suffering a similar fate from Basavanagudi in 1999. For fellow filmstar Mukhyamantri Chandru, who contested from Chamarajpet on a BJP ticket, destiny proved a little sweeter — he got over 14,000 votes. However, he is now a non-entity as his term as MLC ended on Thursday. The film personalities who won are Ambarish (Mandya Lok Sabha constituency), Kumar Bangarappa (Soraba Assembly constituency), Yogeshwar (Channapatna) and H D Kumaraswamy (Ramanagara). The fact that only five persons could make a successful transition from the silverscreen to the political scene has evoked mixed reactions from the film industry. “Unlike our neighbouring states where film stars go on to become Chief Ministers, here, we are struggling to gain popularity. The election results make it more evident,” a Kannada film industry observer told Deccan Herald. At least three actors who were sure that their filmi charm would bag them votes met an ugly defeat. Prominent among them were Jaggesh and Shashikumar. The debacle, like always, is apparently a pointer to the fact that Karnataka voters are not swayed by cine glamour when it comes to choosing their representatives. The others who failed to ascend the Assembly gaddi are comedian Dwarkish (Hunsur), Vijay Kumar (Channapatna). Those who did not make it to Parliament House include Jayanthi (Bangalore South), Ramakrishna (Canara), Doddanna (Shimoga) and Shashikumar (Chikkaballapur).
Former police officer, actor and political debutante B C Patil (JD-S) won against B U Basavanappa (BJP) in Hirekerur Assembly seat. Former Chief Secretary B S Patil who was fielded from Dharwad North by Congress was defeat by BJP’s Prahlad Joshi — by a margin of a whopping 83,570 votes. Similarly, former IAS officer S L Gangadharappa who took early retirement to contest from Kolar on a JD(S) ticket, was defeated by senior Congressman K H Muniyappa. J Alexander, also former Chief Secretary who was Bharatinagar MLA since 1999, bowed to BJP new-comer Nirmal Surana.
Among officials testing the political waters for the first time were ‘supercops’ H T Sangliana and Abdul Azeem. While the former trounced senior Congressman Jaffer Sharief in Bangalore North by a wide margin, the latter gave a tough fight to Congress’ V Somanan in Binnypet Assembly constituency but emerged second. Former police official D T Jayakumar (JD-S), however, defeated minister M Mahadev (Cong) in Nanjangud. N Y Gopalakrishna, a former government employee won on a Congress ticket from Molakalmur assembly, while former sub-inspector C Channigappa (JD-S) won in Koratagere.
Former IPS officer Revanasiddaiah (Cong) lost to State JD(S) working president S Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari Assembly seat, while P Kodandaramaiah gave the Chitradurga Lok Sabha seat to retired Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice N Y Hanumanthappa.