The more-than-a-century-old Karnatak Vidyavardhak Sangha, a representative body of Kannada and Kannadigas, based in Dharwad, is all set to choose a new body with the election process scheduled to begin on November 12.
In the last five decades, this is for the first time in the history of the organisation that the elections will be held in the absence of veteran journalist-activist Patil Puttappa, who held the sangha president’s post for 48 years. Nonagenarian Puttappa was re-elected to the post during the previous election and the post fell vacant after his demise in March 2020.
The elections for the new body of 15 members was scheduled take place in May, but was put off following the COVID-19 situation. The calendar of events for the election has been announced now. The election process will begin on November 12 and polling will be held on November 28.
The sangha has 7,598 members who are eligible to vote and they have to elect 15 members, including candidates for the posts of the sangha president, working president, vice-president, general secretary, treasurer and joint secretary. The executive committee comprises nine members.
Three factions
All these years, the sangha used to witness direct fight between two groups, one led by Patil Puttappa and the other of his opponents and critics. Now, with the passing away of Patil Puttappa, a new group has taken birth in the sangha and now, these three groups have prepared ground for the battle.
The group that was associated with Patil Puttappa has decided to field former MLA Chandrakanth Bellad for the sangha president’s post, while the other two factions are unlikely to field their candidates for this post.
Shankar Halgatthi, who leads the Saman Manaskara Tanda (like minded people’s team) and held the post of general secretary earlier, is contesting for the same post again. From this team, writer Malati Pattanshetti is contesting for the vice-president’s post, senior counsel Basavaprabhu Hosakeri for the working president’s post, Shivanand Bhavikatti for treasurer and Shivappa Karatagi for the joint secretary’s post. Their team also has Savita Kusugal contesting for women reserved, B. Maruti for SC/ST reserved, and Sanjiv Kulkarni, Guru Hiremath, Shrishail Huddar, Shailaja Amarshetty, Shashidhar Todkar, Shashi Sali and Ravi Kulkarni are contesting for the posts of executive members.
General secretary and senior advocate Prakash Udakeri, who leads the Patil Puttappa faction, is seeking re-election. This group has Sadanand Shivalli for vice-president’s post, Manoj Patil for working president, Satish Turmuri for treasurer, Shankar Kumbi for joint secretary, Dhanvanth Hajavgol for SC/ST reserved and Vishweshwari Hiremath for women reserved. Martandappa Katti, Harsh Dambal, Jinadutt Hadagali, Mahesh Horakeri, Sharanamma Gorebal, Veeranna Waddin and Abhishek Desai are contesting for executive members posts.
The third faction led by actor-turned politician Subhash Shinde is not contesting for the post of general secretary either and is yet to come up with a list of candidates for various posts. It has to be seen whether, this group will retain the enthusiasm to contest by the time the nomination process begins on November 12.
As per the calendar of events, the last date for filing nomination papers is November 16. Scrutiny of papers will be on November 17 and candidates will have time till November 19 to withdraw nomination papers. The final list of candidates in the fray will be declared on November 20 and polling will take place on November 28, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the sangha. Counting of votes will be on November 29.
Published - November 07, 2021 07:35 pm IST
