MYSURU: The fate of 17 candidates, including Mysuru royal family scion Yaduveer Krishnadutta Chamaraja Wadiyar, will be decided on Tuesday, with the focus on Mysuru Lok Sabha seat. This contest has garnered national attention with the entry of the royal family into electoral politics after a gap of 20 years.
It turned into a battle of prestige between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, more than a fight between Yaduveer and Congress candidate M Lakshmana, who has tasted defeat twice in the Legislative Council elections in the past.
The BJP denied a ticket to two-time sitting MP Prathap Simha and sprang a surprise, bringing Yaduveer to centre-stage to contest the parliament election. Though there were too many aspirants from the JDS, the party’s decision to join the NDA forced many to bury their differences and campaign for the BJP candidate in CM Siddaramaiah’s home turf.
PM Modi and former PM HD Deve Gowda campaigned jointly for the NDA candidates -- Prajwal Revanna in Hassan, HD Kumaraswamy in Mandya, S Balaraj in Chamarajanagar and Yaduveer Wadiyar for the Mysuru-Kodagu seat. The BJP claims it will win with a comfortable margin as it has cut into Congress’s traditional votes and has the support of youths, both urban and rural.
The Congress preferred to field its spokesperson M Lakshmana, who was vocal against the BJP and planned to win over Vokkaliga votes. CM Siddaramaiah made three visits to the constituency and camped in the assembly segments for more than a week to win over all sections, claiming the party has implemented the five guarantees.
Despite the BJP putting up a high-profile candidate in Mysuru-Kodagu seat, many here feel it is a tough call to predict if Vokkaliga voters would have thrown their weight behind the Congress, and also the fact that women have voted in big chunks. Congress leaders are confident of clinching the seat, claiming that minorities, Dalits and backward classes have solidly supported their candidate.
Though the post-poll scenario indicates that the BJP will do well here, party insiders are sceptical about whether the government’s guarantees can tilt the balance.
Question of survival
Meanwhile, Mandya has also drawn national attention with former CM HD Kumaraswamy in the fray. The JDS had to badly win the seat for the survival of the party, and political prospects of Kumaraswamy, who is likely to make it to the Union cabinet if BJP returns to power for a third term. The party claims that Kumaraswamy has an edge over Congress candidate and businessman Star Chandru.