BENGALURU: As the campaign trail falls silent in the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of North Karnataka that are going to the polls on Tuesday, BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh will be keeping his fingers crossed that his efforts does not go in vain as his prestige is at stake.
This is especially so in the five LS seats of Kalyan Karnataka, including Kalaburagi, home turf of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge where he has focussed and campaigned subtly.
According to sources, after receiving a report that certain BJP leaders are providing tacit support to the Congress, Santhosh rushed to the region to keep the party flock together.
Santhosh has held booth committee workers’ meetings in Kalaburagi, Bidar and Koppal LS constituencies, where party candidates Dr Umesh Jadhav, Bhagawant Khuba and newbie Basavaraj Kyavatoor are facing a tough fight from Congress candidates Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani, Sagar Khandre and Rajashekar Hitnal, respectively.
He also held similar meetings in Raichur where BJP’s Raja Amareshwar Naik is taking on the former bureaucrat Kumar Naik, a newbie, and in Ballari where former minister B Sriramulu has locked horns with Sanduru Congress MLA E Tukaram.
The BJP went all out by not depending upon former CM B S Yediyurappa and the Modi wave. It made use of Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi leader Mandakrishna Madiga to fetch a section of Madiga (SC left) community votes because Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised him to classify the SC quota during the Telangana assembly polls.
Former minister and Gangavathi MLA Gali Janardhana Reddy and JDS state president H D Kumaraswamy also chipped in.
Interestingly, Yediyurappa did not campaign in the Kalyan Karnataka region, except for attending Modi’s rally and a meeting in Raichur, as aggressively as in Old Mysuru and Shimoga LS constituency.