Mangala Angadi; Mala Narayanarao (R)
HUBBALLI: North Karnataka on Sunday saw the defeat of Mala Narayanarao, wife of late Congress MLA B Narayanarao, and narrow victory of Mangala Angadi, wife of late BJP Union minister Suresh Angadi. Mangala made the final cut with a margin of 5,240 votes.
While both parties fielded spouses of their late leaders to garner votes, the sympathy card appears to have lost its sheen as it didn’t necessarily translate into many votes.
The strategy failed in the 2020 byelections too, when in Sira, JD(S) fielded the better half of late MLA B Satyanarayana, but was relegated to third place when results were declared.