BENGALURU: To send a message that all is well among the coalition partners, especially at a time when BJP leaders are talking about the government not surviving beyond May 23, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will attend joint campaign rallies for Congress candidates in Kundgol and Chincholi
assembly segments ahead of the May 19 bypolls.
Kumaraswamy, who had stayed away from campaigning until now, will be in Kundgol on Monday and Chincholi on Tuesday. Congress sources said the CM’s presence at the joint rallies will help counter BJP’s allegations of differences within the coalition partners. While Congress leaders are sweating it out to win the bypolls, the CM is taking rest in a resort in Madikeri and the BJP used it as an issue to drive home its point that there are differences in the coalition.
“As a coalition partner, it is our duty to campaign for Congress candidates. The CM is campaigning to ensure that the Congress candidates win these elections,” said JDS spokesperson Ramesh Babu. “We admit there are some differences and it is quite natural to have such differences in our political system. That doesn’t mean there is any threat to the coalition government. BJP leaders are making allegations out of frustration,” he said when asked if the CM is attending joint rallies to send out a message of unity among the coalition partners.
Retaining Kundgol and Chincholi assembly seats is crucial for the Congress and also its coalition partner JDS. The BJP, which is the single largest party with 104 legislators in the 224-member assembly, is making all-out efforts to increase its tally to 106.
In 2018 assembly elections, BJP lost Kundgol seat to Congress with a narrow margin of over 800 votes and differences among its leaders in the assembly segment was said to be one of the reasons for the loss. While BJP is trying to ensure that its leaders work together for party candidate S I Chikkangoudar, the Congress too is confident of retaining the seat and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar is coordinating the campaign for the party candidate Kusuma Shivalli, wife of late minister C S Shivalli.
“The JDS may not be a big factor in the constituency, but the CM campaigning for the Congress candidates helps as it sends out a right message,” sources said.
In the 2018 bypolls to assembly and LS seats, the CM and Congress leaders had extensively conducted joint campaigning and had managed to win two out of three LS seats and two assembly seats.
According to Dharwad Rural District Congress unit president Anil Patil, the CM will address two rallies in Kundgol.