The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Candidates on the campaign treadmill

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Monday, May 05, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Candidates on the campaign treadmill

Bageshree S.

Despite being familiar, there is no escape from the rough and tumble of electioneering

45 candidates in Bangalore are first-timers
All contestants have to rely on a personal campaign

Kupendra Reddy and E Krishnappa

Bangalore: Even early birds cannot catch Kupendra Reddy these days. This first-time contestant from Bommanahalli is up at the crack of dawn and out on his door-to-door campaign by 7 a.m.

The estate agent may be one of the biggest moneybags in the fray in the coming Assembly elections, next only to Prasad Reddy of the Bharatiya Janata Party from BTM Layout, but strict enforcement of the model code of conduct by the Election Commission has ensured that he has no escape from the rough and tumble of the election campaign.

While all contestants have to rely on a personal campaign because there is a strict ban on cut-outs, posters and other publicity material, this is an absolute necessity for first-timers. After all, they cannot take for granted even the voters’ familiarity with their faces.

With 45 of the total number of 264 candidates in Bangalore being first-timers, candidates queuing up before voters’ doors with folded hands is a common sight.

Mr. Reddy is quick to project his USP: “More than 75 per cent of the people in the constituency know me personally.” He is not entirely a political greenhorn, having “played a role” in many election campaigns, including those of D.K. Shivakumar and the late S. Ramesh.

E. Krishnappa, an estate agent whose claim to fame is that he produced the Kannada blockbuster “Mungaru Male,” is another first-timer. The Janata Dal (Secular) contestant from Yelahanka is also trudging up and down the undulating roads of villages .

He is reluctant to admit that his connection with filmdom helps in his foray into politics. “My other campaign members mention that I am ‘Mungaru Male Krishnappa’, but I don’t say that myself.” He has also employed a band of 10 campaigners in each ward who are “in touch with every voter on an everyday basis,” he adds.

These estate agents can, no doubt, afford a huge band of supporters who will fan out with pamphlets. One may recall the number of supporters who accompanied Mr. Reddy when he went to file his nomination papers, creating a huge traffic jam.

But life is more difficult for first-timers who cannot buy support of this kind. K.C. Venkatesh of the All-India Forward Bloc says that while those who belong to major parties can at least bank on familiarity with their party symbols “for good or bad,” he has to work doubly hard as a first-timer and from a party not too well known. “People from cities are hardly used to walking so much,” he adds with a laugh.

But Mr. Reddy says that he walks about 12 to 13 km a day. Is that doubling as his fitness regimen? “On a treadmill I might have walked only four to five kilometres a day,” he says.

Will this election then throw up MLAs with a lean and hungry look?

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