The election campaigning to the state Assembly, which goes to polls on Sunday, witnessed high-decibel canvassing by high-profile leaders for their parties. They toured across the state and sought votes for their party candidates.
AICC supremo Sonia Gandhi, ‘Yuva Raj’ of Congress Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP national president Rajnath Singh, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BSP national leader Mayawati, former deputy prime minister L K Advani and chief ministers of several Congress and non-Congress states were some of the popular faces that took part in the electioneering.
The Congress, which hopes to come back to power after a gap of seven years, had invited Sonia, Rahul, Manmohan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan and Delhi CM Sheila Dixit to campaign for its candidates. Sonia addressed public meetings in Chikmagalur (where former prime minister late Indira Gandhi contested the Lok Sabha elections and won), Mangalore, Bangalore and Gulbarga. Rahul campaigned in Tumkur, Mysore, Haveri, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Mandya and Belgaum. Manmohan Singh campaigned in Hubli and Bangalore while Sheila Dixit toured Bangalore and Chauhan visited Bangalore and Belgaum (aiming at Marathi voters). Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and Kerala Chief Minister Ommen Chandy also canvassed in a few constituencies.
Union Tourism Minister and Telugu actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, Minister Purandareshwari and a host of actors from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and, of course, Kannada filmdom actively involved themselves in the poll campaigns. Chiranjeevi and Purandareshwari campaigned in Telugu-dominated areas in the districts.
Not lagging behind, Rajnath Singh toured four districts whereas Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and firebrand leader Uma Bharti visited three districts each in the state.
However, the BJP’s star campaigner Modi, who was initially reluctant to campaign as the party faces an uphill task to come back to power in the state, addressed public meetings in Bangalore, Belgaum and Mangalore. Mayawati campaigned for candidates in Gulbarga district.
Left leaders Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yachuri campaigned in Bangalore, Bagepalli, Gauribidanur and Mandya. Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav also campaigned for his party candidates in a few constituencies.
State JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy claimed that he travelled around one lakh kilometres since January covering all 224 Assembly seats.
In the last one month, he visited over 130 Assembly constituencies for campaigning. JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda visited over 70 constituencies from Chamarajanagar to Davangere. Opposition Leader in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, a crowd-puller, has visited 90 constituencies across the state.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwar campaigned in four districts and Union Labour Minister M Mallikarjun Kharge campaigned in Gulbarga and Bidar districts. They also accompanied Sonia, Rahul and Manmohan Singh to most of their public meetings.
While Congress leaders attacked the state government for corruption, nepotism and lack of development in the last five years, the BJP leaders made a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA government for the series of scams exposed frequently.
The Congress appealed to voters to vote for them so as to bring a ‘stable and corruption-free government’ to power while the BJP chanted the mantra of development. The BJP is going to the polls with scar of corruption, including illegal mining, denotification and nepotism, and has asked voters to pardon them for all the mistakes committed by them in the last five years.