Bengaluru (Karnataka) : As the campaign intensified for the May 10 Karnataka polls, all eyes are on the senior MLAs who have won the elections four to eight times. Congress has more such multi-time winning MLAs compared to BJP and JDS. In the present polls, the ruling BJP has fielded 224, Congress 223 and JDS 211 candidates.
Many of them are newcomers, while others have been elected as MLAs 6 to 8 times. The senior MLA of the current assembly is RV Deshpande from Congress. Earlier, Mallikarjun Kharge was the senior MLA of the House and he was elected as MLA 9 times. Deshpande was defeated only one time and now he has submitted his nomination for the 10th time.
From 1983 to 1994, Deshpande contested on the Janata Parivar ticket and became MLA 4 times. He joined Congress in 1999 and won in the 2004, 2013 and 2018 elections. In 2008, he lost only once against his follower Sunil Hegde. Former CM Siddaramaiah contested elections 10 times and won 8 times including by-elections. He was defeated three times (1989-1999, 2018 Chamundeshwari).
DK Shivakumar who is the president of KPCC has won 7 elections so far. Contested from Satanur constituency in 1989 and became MLA for the first time. He won the 1999 election by a margin of 56 thousand votes against former CM Kumaraswamy. Since 2008, he has been representing the Kanakapura constituency and has been winning.
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Jagdish Shettar contested 6 times successfully. In the 2023 election, he was denied the BJP ticket, and he has submitted his nomination paper from the Congress seeking election for the 7th time. He has vast political experience having worked as a Minister, Assembly Speaker, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and Chief Minister. KR Ramesh Kumar, a minister and former speaker, has been in electoral politics since 1978. In his long political career, he contested as an independent and on Janata Dal and Congress tickets.
Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, who is the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, has been elected as an MLA 6 times. He has submitted nomination papers to the Sirsi assembly constituency. HD Revanna, who is a six-time MLA, has been elected in the 1999, 2004, 2008, 2013 and 2018 elections.
MB Patil, who is the president of the Congress campaign committee, became an MLA for the first time in 1991 when he was elected in the by-election of the Thikota constituency. In 2004, he was re-elected to the Legislative Assembly from Tikota. In 2008, after the re-distribution of constituencies, he was elected from Babaleshwar Constituency, and in 2013 and 2018, he was elected from the same constituency and became an influential minister and leader. He has been elected five times as an MLA.
V Somanna, Suresh Kumar and GH Tippareddy have won as MLAs five times each. Former CM H D Kumaraswamy won as MLA four times and two times as Lok Sabha MP. He won the 1996 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Kanakapur and Bengaluru. He has won 4 times in Ramanagara Assembly Constituency. In the 2018 assembly elections, he contested and won both the Ramnagar and Channapatna constituencies.
