Karnataka elections: Bilgi Assembly constituency

Bilgi is a panchayat town and taluka in the Bagalkot district. It is located 30 km from the district headquarters of Bagalkot district. The taluka is bordered by Bijapur District to the north, Mudhol Taluka to the west, Bagalkot Taluka to the south and southeast, and Jamakhandi Taluka to the north. Bilgi has an average literacy rate of 58 oer cent, lower than the national average of 59.5 per cent with male literacy of 66 per cent and female literacy of 49 per cent.

The main attraction in Bilgi is a stone pond called Arettina Bavi or six-bullock well. The temple in this stone pond is not worshipped as the Shiva linga is broken. Shri Siddeshwara temple and dargah of Hasan Dongri are also places of interest in Bilagi.

Congress party's J T Patil is the current MLA from Bilagi. In 2013 Assembly elections, Patil defeated BJP's Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani by 11,238 votes.

Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani was defeated in 2013 after two sucessive terms in the state assembly in 2004 and 2008. In fact, in 2004 Assembly elections, Nirani had defeated Patil by 17, 325 votes. Since 1994, J T Patil has won Assembly elections three times (1994, 1999 and 2013) while Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani has won twice (2004, 2008).

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