In the last Karnataka Assembly elections of 2008, 2013 and 2018, Belgaum North witnessed a conflicting picture in Belgaum Rural constituency. Congress has dominated the Belgaum rural constituency last time by breaking the monopoly of Bharatiya Janata Party in this constituency between two elections.
A total of 10 candidates contested the Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections from Belgaum Rural Constituency held in the previous year 2008. 71.11 percent voters exercised their right to vote for all these candidates.
Sanjay Patil of Bharatiya Janata Party won by securing the highest 31.73 percent votes. He defeated his closest rival Indian National Congress candidate S. C. Malgi was defeated by a margin of 6.25 percent. Malgi of Congress got 25.48 percent votes.
In the 2013 Legislative Assembly elections, there were a total of 12 candidates in the rural constituency. 74 percent voting for the election. In this election, there was a tough fight between BJP’s Sanjay Patil and independent (M.A. Committee) candidate Manohar Kinekar. But Sanjay Patil narrowly won over Kinekar by 0.88 percent votes. In the election, Sanjay Patil got 25.2 percent votes while his nearest rival Manohar Kinekar got 24.32 percent votes. Thus Sanjay Patil was elected for the second time from this constituency.
Sanjay Patil’s winning streak was stopped by Lakshmi Hebbalkar, the official candidate of the Indian National Congress in the 2018 elections. A total of 13 candidates were in the fray in the Belgaum Rural constituency in the 2018 Legislative Assembly elections. At that time, 77.55 percent voters exercised their right to vote, giving a good response to the election. Lakshmi Hebbalkar of Congress secured an undisputed victory by getting as many as 54.74 percent of these votes.
He defeated his nearest rival Sanjay Patil of the BJP by a margin of 27.75 per cent, breaking his dream of winning the ‘hat trick’ by winning the assembly elections for the third time in a row. Sanjay Patil could get 26.99 percent votes in this election.
