BENGALURU/TUMAKURU : As campaigning is heating up in RR Nagar and Sira Assembly constituencies, it is the sons of leaders from all political parties who are doing the heavy-lifting to pull votes. It is not just B Y Vijayendra, son of CM B S Yediyurappa who is camping at Sira constituency in Tumakuru. Sons of senior leaders from other parties too are campaigning day in and out to win this prestige seat.
Keen to repeat BJP’s stupendous victory in the KR Pete bypolls last year, Vijayendra, who is also BJP state vice-president, arrived at Sira a week ago, and has been micro-managing the campaigning-related activities.Similarly, Sira Congress candidate TB Jayachandra’s sons — TJ Sandeep and TJ Santosh — have taken charge of their father’s campaigning. Santosh is no political greenhorn as he had contested the 2018 Assembly election from Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumakuru, but lost to J C Madhuswamy of the BJP.
Former Congress MLA KN Rajanna’s son R Rajendra too is working for Jayachandra, who is a six-time MLA. He has been meeting leaders from different sections, trying to influence voters of large blocks.
Recently, Dr Yathindra, son of CLP leader Siddaramiah, too has jumped into the poll melee. But he has a reasonably tougher job as he has to campaign against his one-time friend and business partner Dr Rajesh Gowda, who is contesting from the BJP. Dr Yathindra has been given some panchayats to campaign.
Though Ammajamma, wife of former MLA late B Sathyanarayana, is the official candidate of the JDS from Sira, it is her son B Sathyaprakash who is handling the entire load of campaigning. That was also because she was down with Covid and recovered only recently.
In a bid to retain the seat, JDS patriarch H D Deve Gowda has assigned the responsibility of this constituency to his son H D Revanna, who has, in turn, tagged along his MP-son Prajwal Revanna to campaign in Sira.A senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity, told TNIE that senior leaders are involving their children in such outings only to make them gain crucial experience in hard-fought electoral battlefields. “If the candidate wins, children will get a great political mileage,’’ he said.