BENGALURU: The lone Congress MP in Karnataka, D K Suresh from Bangalore Rural, has started holding public meetings and is girding up for the polls, while the rival BJP-JDS alliance held an important meeting under the leadership of former CM H D Kumaraswamy. Suresh, who won in 2014 and 2019, has started campaigning, holding public meetings in Bidadi, Channapatna and Nelamangala, and also held other meetings in Jnanabharati and Yelachenahalli.
The rival camp, understanding the element of urgency, held a meeting on Monday to discuss preparations for the seat. Said Kumaraswamy, “Leaders are advising us not to delay announcing the candidate. We have to go before the people with a candidate. Both parties have agreed with the suggestion of leaders that the candidate should be announced before election dates are announced. I held discussions with NDA leaders on Monday on poll preparations for Bengaluru Rural, selection of candidate and other aspects.’’
The candidate will be selected after discussions with PM Narendra Modi, former PM HD Deve Gowda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda, BJP state president Vijayendra and Opposition leader R Ashoka.
“The candidate will be the united NDA candidate. Let us all work hard to make the alliance candidate win by a big margin,” Kumaraswamy said. In 2019, the Congress won with a margin of over 2 lakh votes, while in the previous election, the party had won by over 2.25 lakh votes. In addition to the first-mover advantage, constituency-wise, out of eight assembly segments, five are with the Congress -- Kanakapura, Kunigal, Anekal, Ramanagara and Magadi -- while three constituencies are with the BJP-JDS alliance.
Kumaraswamy will be personally trying to prove a point in this Vokkaliga heartland, because it was in Ramanagara that his son Nikhil lost to HA Iqbal Hussain by a margin of over 10,000 votes.