BENGALURU: Public campaigning for the elections to the 25 seats of legislative council ended on Friday. However, the parties are free to indulge in door-to-door campaign and meet voters in person, seeking votes.
The elections will be held on Sunday (December 27) and the votes will be counted on December 30.
The two-weeks of no-holds-barred electioneering saw all three major contenders — the ruling Congress, BJP and the JD(S) — locking horns and attacking each other on failures.
While the contest appeared direct between the Congress and the BJP in most of the constituencies, the strong presence of JD(S) in old-Mysuru region has made the contest triangular.
While Congress depended heavily on the advantageous position it is in being the party in power to win the elections, the BJP weaved its campaign mainly around the failures of the Congress government and highlighted its alleged failure in taking up drought relief works.
The JD(S) has seen making all-out efforts to stay relevant in the state politics by evoking an argument of national versus regional parties.
The fierce campaign also saw the ugly display of money power with parties allegedly splurging somewhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 60,000 a vote. There were also reports of gifting of smartphones, gold chains, package tours to voters by some candidates.
Though, the results of these elections will not have any bearing on the state politics, they might indicate the prevailing political mood in the state.
But on a personal level, the results might help Congress or the BJP. The victory in over 18 seats would give Congress the majority in the Upper House and the Chairman’s post. Presently, D H Shankaramurthy of BJP is the chairman owing to the largest party status of the BJP in the 75 member house.
In the 25 seats for which election are being held on Sunday, 13 were represented by the Congress (including independent member Raghu Achar who joined the Congress), 7 from the Congress and five from the JD(S).