Karnataka Elections: Belthangady Assembly Constituency

"Belthangady is a town panchayat and the headquarters of Belthangady taluk in the Dakshina Kannada (South Canara) district. It is 60 km east of Mangaluru and the least urbanized taluk in the district. The town has many popular places of worship like Chandkur Temple, Kuthyaru Somanatheshwara Temple, Shree Mahadevi Marigudi, Shree Anantheshwa temple, Shree Odilu Mahalingeshwara Temple, Bhagwan Shri Shantinath Swamy Digambar jain Temple, Most Holy Redeemer Church and St. Lawrence Syro Malabar Catholic Cathedral Church.

Dharmasthala is one of the holy places in the taluk which is 16 km from Belthangady. The famous Manjunatha temple located along the river Nethravathi.

The town is known for its Dharmasthala Temple which houses the shrine of Shiva, Manjunatha, Ammanavaru, Chandranath and the Dharma Daivas (guardian spirits of Dharma) namely Kalarahu, Kalarkayi, Kumaraswamy and Kanyakumari. The temple is unusual in that it is run by a Jain administration and poojas are conducted by Hindu priests of Madhva order. Lakshadeepa, the festival of lights, is the annual festival of Dharmasthala in November-December.[5] On an average the flow of pilgrims is about 10,000 people a day. A mechanised kitchen provides free food for all pilgrims and there are guest houses with modern amenities.

The Jamalabad fort also known as the Narasimha Gada located just 6 km from the town. Tippu Sultan built the fort on the top of the hill & called it Jamalabad in memory of his mother Jamalabee. Venur, a Jain pilgrim centre is located 19 km from the town.

K Vasantha Bangera from Congress is the current MLA and he defeated Ranjan G. Gowda of BJP by 15,741 votes.

OneIndia News