Battle lines drawn for bypolls in Karnataka
BENGALURU: The star cast is ready for the November 3 bypoll for three Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats. Madhu Bangarappa of JD(S) filed the nomination for Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat, while VS Ugrappa of Congress and J Shanta of BJP submitted their papers for Ballari Lok Sabha seat on the last day of filing nominations. In Jamkhandi Assembly constituency, Anand Nyamagauda of Congress and Srikanth Kulkarni of BJP filed their papers with much fanfare.
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Scrutiny of nominations will be held on Wednesday and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 20. The filing of nominations was turned into a show of strength by Congress and BJP as the candidates of both the parties came with huge processions to the DC’s office.
Ugrappa was accompanied by senior Congress leaders DK Shivakumar, Allum Veerabhadrappa and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao while BJP leaders B Sriramulu and Somashekar Reddy led the procession for Shantha. Police had a tough time controlling the surging crowds as members of both the parties came the same time.
The mining bowl is witnessing a fierce fight as the bypoll is being billed as the clash between Sriramulu, Shantha’s brother, and Congress strongman Shivakumar, who is Ballari District In-charge Minister. Sriramulu is turning it into a battle between daughter of the land and an outsider as BJP is trying to brand Congress candidate Ugrappa from Pavagada as an outsider in Ballari.
In Shivamogga, JD(S) and Congress turned the occasion into a show of unity. Apart from H D Kumaraswamy, senior Congress leaders R V Deshpande, former ministers Kagodu Thimmappa and Kimmane Ratnakar too made their presence felt when Madhu filed his papers. Madhu is facing B Y Raghavendra, son of ex-CM B S Yeddyurappa. Former CM Siddaramaiah drew huge crowds in Jamkhandi as Anand Nyamagouda filed his nomination.
'COALITION GOVERNMENT WILL WIN MINIMUM 25 SEATS IN 2019 POLLS'
The main objective of the coalition government is to win a minimum of 25-26 parliamentary seats in 2019 and the alliance would stay in the state, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has said.
Speaking to reporters, Kumaraswamy said that holding eight assembly constituencies of Shivamogga parliamentary constituency will make no difference. “There were several instances where the other party candidates have won Lok Sabha seats even though the ruling party was holding the assembly constituencies.”