Narasimha Naik, if fielded, is expected to be in a fierce fight in high-voltage Shorapur segment

Shorapur MLA and chairman of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board Narasimha Naik (Raju Gowda) started his political career from the zilla panchayat. He became an MLA for the first time in 2004 on Kannada Nadu Party ticket as a lone contestant who won the election then.

Shorapur MLA and chairman of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board Narasimha Naik (Raju Gowda) started his political career from the zilla panchayat. He became an MLA for the first time in 2004 on Kannada Nadu Party ticket as a lone contestant who won the election then.

To begin with and having no political background, he contested the zilla panchayat elections from Kodekal constituency in Shorapur taluk on Congress ticket and won. He was a close follower of the former MLA Raja Venkatappa Nayak.

But, he came out of the Congress and directly contested the Assembly election in 2004 on Kannada Nadu Party ticket and got elected at the age of 25 to become the youngest legislator then.

Since then, there has been political rivalry between Mr. Narasihma Naik and Mr. Venkatappa Nayak in the constituency. And, both are contesting the elections on their personal strength rather than on the party identity.

In 2008, Mr. Naik joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and contested the election against Mr. Venkatappa Nayak and won it by a margin of 4,581 votes. After certain political development at the State level when the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa formed the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), Mr. Naik joined the Janata Dal(S) and contested the election against the same Mr. Venkatappa Nayak of the Congress in 2013 and defeated him by a margin of 4,075 votes.

When he lost the 2013 election, he joined the BJP and contested the election in 2018 against Mr. Venkatappa Nayak and won with a margin of 22,568 votes. However, he failed to get a ministerial berth under Mr. Yediyurappa and also under Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. But, the BJP government made him Chairman of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board.

Again, a fierce fight is expected between Mr. Naik, if he is fielded again, and Mr. Venkatappa Nayak, traditional opponents, in the upcoming Assembly elections making Shorapur a high voltage constituency in the district.