BENGALURU: With just three days to go for the BBMP polls, the campaigning on Wednesday reached a fever pitch. Leaders of various parties were busy crisscrossing the city before the end of public campaigning in the evening. However, they can carry on with the door-to-door campaigning.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is spearheading the Congress campaign, continued with his road shows and public meetings. On Tuesday, the CM addressed a number of public meetings in KR Puram and Ramamurthy Nagar among other areas.
Racing against time, an aggressive Siddaramaiah went full throttle at the BJP, terming it an outfit of “looters of the BBMP.”
“Do you want those who were eager to pledge the BBMP properties and have left a `9,000 crore debt-burden to rule the civic body again?” he asked people at his road shows, getting the answer ‘no’ from party workers who had gathered in large numbers.
“From the last few days, the CM has been hitting the campaign trail by 9.30 am and winding it by 10 pm, with just a 30-minute break for lunch,” said an official from the Chief Minister’s Office. By Wednesday evening, the CM would cover all the 27 Assembly constituencies in the city, he added.
Siddaramaiah was accompanied by KPCC president G Parameshwara, ministers from the city, MLAs and candidates. The party has also put up giant hoardings in many places with the message “You want clean Bengaluru? Let’s clean up BBMP first.” Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijay Singh and other leaders also campaigned for the party candidates.
The BJP and JD(S) too have gone full throttle. Union Ministers Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda, both MPs from the city, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, senior leaders K S Eshwarappa and R Ashoka were busy reaching out to voters in every ward. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who is a Rajya Sabha member from the state, also campaigned for the party candidates.
Finding it difficult to counter the corruption charges from the Congress, the BJP leaders have made the Congress government’s move to divide the BBMP into smaller corporations as their main political weapon to attack the ruling party.
They questioned the moral right of the Congress to even contest the polls, as the party has “vowed to dissolve the BBMP.” They have also taken up the demolition of houses on lake-beds by the Congress government as another strong poll issue.
For the JD (S), party patriarch H D Deve Gowda hit the streets despite the blazing sun. Former CM H D Kumaraswamy and MLAs are trying to make the party’s presence felt in at least some constituencies in the city.
In Mahalaxmi Layout, with the party MLA Gopalaiah’s backing, JD (S) candidates are said to be giving a tough fight to the BJP and Congress. The MLA’s wife is also contesting the elections. The party may also make some gains in Chamrajpet where MLA Zameer Ahmed is wooing minority voters.