Puttur Assembly constituency falls under the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. The constituency is unreserved in nature. In the 2018 Assembly elections, Sanjeeva Matandoor of BJP (54.17%) defeated Shakunthala T Shetty of INC (42.46%). Shakuntala T Shetty had previously been part of BJP and won the 2004 Assembly elections. She was expelled from the BJP before the 2013 Assembly elections and INC provided her ticket of candidature for the election. The move brought success as Shakuntala T Shetty of INC (46.46%) defeated Sanjeeva Matandoor of BJP (43.45%) in the 2013 Assembly election. INC has given ticket to Ashok Kumar Rai whereas BJP has decided to give ticket to Asha Thimmappa. Arun Kumar Puthila who was optimistic of getting ticket from BJP has decided to contest the Assembly election as an independent candidate after BJP denied him ticket. All the three candidates are fresh faces and contesting Assembly elections for the first time.

The dominant caste in the constituency is Vokkaliga community (Gowda). One of the key reasons for BJP opting to give ticket to Asha Thimmappa instead of Arun Kumar Puthila is because Asha Thimmappa belongs to the Gowda community. Though on a larger perspective, even though Asha belongs to the Gowda community she does not have requisite support from Gowda community which BJP is banking on for the upcoming election. The biggest hindrance to this is the fact that she is not very known in the area which has created lack of belief towards her. The second most dominant community in the area is the Muslim community. The Muslim community has inclination towards INC for the upcoming Assembly election. Other dominant communities are the Bunt, Rai and Shetty. Majority of the inclination from these communities lies with Ashok Kumar Rai. There is a miniscule segment of the community who are in favour of Arun Kumar Puthila. The inclination of the Pujari community is split between INC and independent candidate Arun Kumar Puthila. Other Backward castes and rest of the communities in the region are in favour of Arun Kumar Pithila.

The biggest hindrance for BJP leading up to the upcoming Assembly election is the division and internal dispute caused due to Arun Kumar Pithila contesting as an independent candidate rather than BJP. Arun Kumar Pithila who is a Sangh Parivar activist has caused severe turmoil within BJP. This will automatically lead to splitting of votes considering Arun Kumar Pithila’s support within BJP supporters remains strong in the region. The lack of influential candidate from BJP followed by split of votes due to Arun Kumar Pithila contesting as an independent candidate is projected to work in favour of INC in the upcoming election. The campaign done by BJP leaders in the constituency was also lacklustre and is not showing any major effect on BJP supporters as majority of them are still in favour of Arun Kumar Pithila. Taking the above into consideration, it can be predicted that the upcoming election will be hotly contested between INC and Arun Kumar Pithila with INC having the edge due to split of votes.

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