How a city corporator turned out to be a giant killer in Kolar

Bengaluru: When the BJP decided to field a lesser known Bengaluru’s corporator S Muniswamy against the Congress veteran K H Muniyappa in Kolar, it surprised many including the party workers. But the party leaders were certain that Muniswamy was the right person to take on Muniyappa.

As the Lok Sabha election results were declared on Thursday, Muniswamy emerged as a dark horse, defeating seven time MP and former railway minister Muniyappa. This has surprised the Congress which was under the impression that the JD(S) refraining from the race and throwing weight behind Muniyappa, would help an easy victory to the party candidate.

Forty four year old Muniswamy is a first time corporator from Bengaluru. The saffron party gave him the ticket bypassing Dalit leaders such as DS Veeraiah and others in the constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes.


Muniswamy though originally hails Malur in Kolar district, was relatively new to the constituency. He was, however, making frequent visits to Kolar for six months before the election, which the party workers believed was an attempt to establish himself in the region.

Internal rift within the Congress is said to be one of the reasons for the defeat of Muniyappa. Ahead of the polls, party leaders including Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar openly criticised their MP. Sitting and former Congress MLAs too had declared their support to the BJP candidate. There were also doubts over the transfer of votes from the JD(S) to Congress considering the party workers have been traditional rivals.