Mangalore : The present Bantwal Constituency was known as Panemangaluru constituency  until 1962 and Dr. K. Nagappa Alva from Congress party has won first two election held in1957 and 1962. K. Leelavati Rai from Congress party won the 1967 election from Bantwal Constituency and become the first lady from South canara district to enter state assembly. BV. Kakkillaya of CPI won 1972 election by defeating Rukmayya Poojary of Janasangha by huge margin. N. Shivaram from BJP defeated Congress candidate KP. Abdulla in 1983.

But from 1985 onwards B. Ramanath Rai from congress won 4 consecutive times until  2004. B.Nagaraj Shetty  of BJP won the Bantwal assembly constituency by defeating Ramanath Rai. In 2008 Ramanath Rai regained his seat. This time BJP fielded Rajesh Naik Ulepady,  a young and dynamic modern agriculturist from Bantwal. Even though he is a new entrant to politics he is a  well known social activities and a popular figure    in the Bantwal area. He got the backing of RSS cadre and blessings of Dr. Prabhakar Bhatt. The BJP volunteers are campaigning in full swing in the constituency to ensure the victory of BJP candidate. If other candidates are capable of splitting  Congress votes the BJP will come out with surprise results. Over all it is a neck to neck fight between Congress and BJP in Bantwal and other party candidates can only effect the margin of votes of these two candidates.