MYSURU: The temple town of Nanjangud is gearing up for a show of strength of Congress with a party workers’ meet in the run up to bypolls.
It will be the first rally post the resignation of veteran Congress leader V Srinivasa Prasad. The meet has drawn attention of all political parties as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself will address the party workers.
Siddaramaiah, who has taken the polls seriously in his home turf and fears that any setback in bypolls would spoil the political prospects of Congress in 2018 Assembly election, has shown personal interest as he doesn't want to take chances.
He has also assigned PWD Minister H C Mahadevappa and Co-operation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad to mobilise all party leaders from wards and panchayats. The local leaders are also in touch to ensure that not many follow behind Prasad in Nanjangud that is dominated by Veerashaiavas , Dalits, Nayaka and other communities.
It is also expected that Siddaramaiah, who had maintained silence and refused to react to Prasad’s criticism is likely to reply and clarify that he is not at fault in sacking the dalit leader from the Cabinet.
According to sources, dalit leader Mallikarjun Kharge and others have also prevailed upon Siddaramaiah to clarify as Prasad has trained his guns at Congress leaders Kharge, Parameshwara and Digvijay Singh accusing them of hijacking Congress and auctioning ministerial berths.
On the other side, Congressmen fear that criticising Prasad in harsh words would backfire as he might gain sympathy and mobilize dalits and non-Congress votes. They fear that it would further give Prasad and opposition parties to brand Siddaramaiah as anti-dalit. The focus has shifted to keep Congress voters intact and also bring in Veerashaivas to Congress fold.
Minister H C Mahadevappa and others have decided to bring only important leaders in first phase and organise two mega rallies in the run up to the polls and launch more than `100 crore development works.
“Our focus is on development of the constituency and strengthening the Congress and not to target or reply to those making baseless charges. The people of the state and district know what the Congress government has done in past three years. We want our programmes to speak,” said Mahadevappa.
The Congress leaders have decided to go slow in announcing the candidate for bypolls till Prasad makes his decision public and opposition parties make their stand clear in bypolls.
However, the war of words and mud-slinging would set the stage for another high-voltage electoral battle in the CM’s native district.