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Monday, Apr 04, 2011
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Campaigning gathers pace for bypolls

S. Rajendran

Top leaders of major parties strain every nerve for success of their candidates

In full force:Congress leaders, including Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna and

Bangalore: The end of the World Cup Cricket on Saturday marked the commencement of hectic political campaigning on Sunday for the byelections to the Legislative Assembly seats — Jagalur, Bangarpet and Channapatna.

The intensity of the campaign was all the more with the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) aiming to reduce the stranglehold of the Bharatiya Janata Party over electoral politics in Karnataka over the past three years.

The campaigning in the byelections rose to a feverish pitch on Sunday with all top leaders of the three main parties — Congress, Janata Dal (S) and the BJP — getting to the streets in these constituencies to work for the success of their candidates.

While there may not be much of campaigning over the next two days with Ugadi being a major festival, Wednesday is the only other day for campaigning given the order of the Election Commission that public campaigning should come to a stop 48 hours before the commencement of polling. In the present case, campaigning will come to a close at 7 a.m. on Thursday, with Saturday being the polling day.

The BJP juggernaut which has been on a roll in the State over the past three years is stated to be finding it tough in the present round of byelections with the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) putting up a stiff fight to retain their control over the seats which they had won in the last round of elections. It is another matter that a victory even in one seat will translate into a gain for the BJP.

With just six days left for the bypolls, campaigning picked up full scale with even some of the Union Ministers — Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna and Minister for Labour and Employment M. Mallikarjun Kharge — apart from KPCC president G. Parameshwara, Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, State BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa, the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Janata Dal (S) leader P.G.R. Sindhia drawn in.

For the second time

Interestingly, Channapatna will go down in the record books with a byelection being held for a second time during the term of an Assembly (13th Assembly).

Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar won the seat in the 2008 Assembly elections and resigned thereafter (after changing loyalty to the BJP) to contest the Lok Sabha elections in May 2009.

In the August 2009 byelections to five Assembly seats which included Channapatna, the Janata Dal (S) candidate M.C. Ashwath won.

He resigned in October 2010 to enable the Yeddyurappa Government to win the crucial vote of confidence, resulting in a second round of byelections.

There have been three rounds of byelections to the Assembly in the last three years and the BJP has been successful in all of them.

The Janata Dal (S) too has performed creditably, while the Congress has been humbled.

On an even keel

In the present round, the three parties appear to be on an even keel with the Janata Dal (S) likely to retain its hold over Channapatna, the Congress over Bangarpet and the BJP set to gain the Jagalur seat. While the Bangarpet and the Jagalur seats were with the Congress, Channapatna has been with the Janata Dal (S) since 2009.

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