Even as leaders of political parties are set to cough up huge sums of money for poll campaigns in almost every nook and corner of the state, the moot point being raised is whether these top leaders can make a difference to the fortunes of their candidates.
As far as Koppal district is concerned, electoral history portrays that whenever top leaders of political parties campaigned here, their respective party candidates have suffered defeat.
For instance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi campaigned in the 2008 Assembly elections here and the party received a drubbing in the district.
Despite the high profile campaigning by BJP leaders, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister L K Advani, the party could not succeed in electoral politics in the pre-2008 elections either to the Lok Sabha or the Legislative Assembly.
Similarly, former PM H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy are no exception to this dogma. Instead of making an impact, the campaigns by top leaders tie the hands of candidates as they have to dedicate time to welcome and accompany their top leaders. Moreover, the itinerary of the top leaders warrant adequate time, thanks to administrative and security reasons, observe political thinkers here.
On condition of anonymity, a former MLA of the Congress told Express that he had to set apart more than half his campaign time to receive and accompany a slew of party top leaders in one of the last elections to the Legislative Assembly. He lost the elections miserably. Will this history of howlers repeat in the district in the 2013 polls? Top leaders of major political parties are lined-up to raise campaign dust in the district in the coming days.