BENGALURU: The bugle for the December 5 bypolls to 15 assembly seats in the state has been sounded and the Big 2 — BJP and Congress — have a lot on their plate. With rebels switching sides and some not getting tickets, the BJP is trying to placate the ‘insiders’ and douse the fire like in Ballari and Mahalakshmi Layout.
Amidst all this, campaigning is slowly gaining momentum as many candidates filed their nominations on Saturday and senior leaders joined them in the campaigning. Monday is the last day for filing nominations and so far, 96 candidates have filed their nominations.
While former Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy hit the ground running by addressing election meetings in Hoskote and Hunsur, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was busy talking to the party leaders, who were miffed over giving tickets to disqualified legislators and taking them into confidence.
The CM held meetings with the party leaders from Mahalaxmi Layout and Yeshwantpura assembly segments in Bengaluru and asked them to work for the party candidates. On Friday, the CM had managed to convince Deputy CM Laxman Savadi and disqualified legislators, both aspirants for the party tickets, to join the campaign. The CM will be campaigning for BJP candidate in Hoskote M T B Nagaraj on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Congress today appointed former ministers as in-charge of the bypolls in all 15 constituencies and also named 253 leaders, including MLAs and former ministers, as observers. KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said they will defeat the disqualified legislators, who are contesting elections as BJP candidates. Siddaramaiah addressed election meetings in Hosakote and attended a road show when the party candidate Padmavathy Suresh filed her nomination papers. Former minister Krishna Byre Gowda has been named as the party’s election in-charge in the constituency.
In Hunsur, H D Kumaraswamy along with former ministers Sa Ra Mahesh, H D Revanna, MLAs Ashwin Kumar and the JD(S) candidate Somashekar took out a procession with thousands of partymen. The former CM also visited JDS leader Ganesh Gowda’s house to defuse the dissent as he is demanding the party ticket. Kumaraswamy assured Ganesh that he would take care of his political prospects.
“There is no understanding with any political party for the bypolls. We have not fielded a candidate to defeat someone. We are contesting to win the seat. There is no change in our stand as we have taken the byelections seriously,” said Kumaraswamy.
He added that they want to defeat the 17 disqualified MLAs to ensure the victory of JD(S) candidates. He flayed A H Vishwanath for raising the demand for Hunsur rural district with an eye on the bypolls.
He ruled out the possibility of having any understanding with disqualified legislator R Roshan Baig, if he decides to contest as an Independent candidate.