The Hindu : Karnataka News : Cong. candidates left to fend for themselves?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 21, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Cong. candidates left to fend for themselves?

By M. Madan Mohan

HUBLI, APRIL 20. A feature of the election scene in northern Karnataka, part of which went to the polls on Tuesday, has been the manner in which the Congress candidates have been forced to fend for themselves in the absence of any input by the party leadership.

On the other hand, the BJP, which is challenging the Congress in the region, has thrown in a number of people for campaigning, including national leaders such as the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the party President, and the Union Ministers, George Feranandes and Arun Shourie, who have criss-crossed the region with a view to give fillip to the party.

Barring the one visit of the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, as part of the Vijay Dundubhi Yatra, which covered some of the districts, and the whistle-stop tour of the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, who is visiting Belgaum today, the other leaders have failed to visit the area. There are 20 Ministers belonging to the northern Karnataka in the Krishna Ministry. None of them have been able to even visit their districts leave alone go to other places to give a helping hand to the party candidates there.

This has put the Congress candidates in a sort of fix. The leaders who have been re-nominated, including those who have come from other parties, have to face two factors: one, of the omissions and commissions of the Krishna Government and the other, their own achievements and failures. And those who have been nominated for the first time have been caught in a whirlpool of dissatisfaction among the rank and file of the party. Besides the party units have not been in the pink of health to take care of the campaigning in the districts.

Only H.K. Patil, Minister for Agriculture, appears to be an exception, as he has not been bogged down by the obligation of contesting the elections. Mr. Patil, a member of the Legislative Council, has been moving round the districts in a vehicle for the past more than one week. He has visited Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gadag, Dharwad and Koppal. Today, he is in Uttara Kannada district and he is planning to cover Haveri and Belgaum districts before returning to Gadag.

Mr. Patil has introduced an innovative way of campaigning. Instead of giving speeches, he has adopted "One question a day" programme. This merits reply from the BJP while questioning its protestations in safeguarding the interests of the State. He has raised the question of Paragodu, the issue of the Krishna and the Mahadayi waters and regional imbalance. He is expected to raise issues such as the establishment of the High Court Bench in Hubli-Dharwad.

Apparently, Mr. Patil has not been consulted in the selection of candidates from the region. He was invited for one meeting of the screening committee in New Delhi.

While most of the supporters of the present crop of legislators have been able to get the party ticket, his campaign against outsiders being preferred to party loyalists in the matter of granting the ticket seems to have not evoked any response from the leadership, except in the case of Kundgol in Dharwad district.

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