V S Karnic

Bangalore, Mar 1 (IANS): Udupi is known for temples and Chikmagalur for enchanting coffee plantations, but over the next two weeks a battle of controversies will unfold in the two Karnataka districts. It will be the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) scandals against Congress scams in the byelection to the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat.

The fight for the March 18 bypoll is mainly between the ruling BJP's Sunil Kumar and the Congress' Jayaprakash Hegde though the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) headed by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda is also in the fray. The party candidate is Chikmagalur unit head Bhoje Gowda.

Sunil Kumar is the BJP's state youth wing president and former legislator while Hegde is a former minister.

The bypoll follows the BJP's D.V. Sadananda Gowda quitting the seat after becoming chief minister in July last year, succeeding B.S. Yeddyurappa who was forced out of office over corruption charges.

The bypoll is, hence, a prestige matter for the BJP as well as Sadananda Gowda, who had defeated Hegde by around 27,000 votes in the 2009 polls.

For the Congress, a victory will be a much-needed morale booster ahead of the assembly polls due in April-May 2013. The party has fared poorly in over 20 byelections to the assembly held after the 2008 polls.

Both the parties have already announced that the scandals of the other will be used to the hilt.

The Congress scandals are at the national level - 2G or spectrum allocation and the Commonwealth Games mess.

The BJP's are nearer home - corruption, illegal land deals and rape charges topped by recent porn viewing in the assembly by two ministers on the cell phone of the third minister.

While the Congress battles the lack of a charismatic leader to enthuse party workers and voters, the BJP is caught in factional fights. Yeddyurappa is sulking that he has been taken for a ride by his party's central leaders.

Yeddyurappa claims BJP president Nitin Gadkari and other central leaders of the party made him quit in July last year saying Sadananda Gowda will be chief minister for four or six months after which he will be reinstated.

Ever since he quit, the BJP's first chief minister in a southern state and the party have been at loggerheads over 'collective leadership', favoured by the party, and 'individual leadership' sought by him.

The Congress hopes to exploit the open war in the self-styled 'disciplined party', though it is not free from indiscipline and leadership issues itself.

The Congress has roped in the services of all its ministers in New Delhi - External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa - and assigned them areas in the constituency for intensive campaigning.

Oscar Fernandes, Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha member from the state, will be the overall incharge.

Though from the BJP, Sadananda Gowda will be the star campaigner as he had won the seat four years ago, the party will continue to talk of 'collective leadership' to humour Yeddyurappa. Sadananda Gowda has said he will campaign for eight days.

Over 1.24 million people will be eligible to vote March 18. Of them over 600,000 are males and more than 635,000 women voters.

Counting is on March 21.