Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 8: All the three parties, BJP, Congress, and JD(S) think that it was unnecessary to hold bypoll for the three vacant Lok Sabha (LS) seats in the state now, taking into account the fact that elected members will have remaining term of only about four months.

BJP state president, B S Yeddyurappa, said that none of the parties in the state were interested in this bypoll. He said he fails to understand why the commission decided to hold this bypoll. Former minister and BJP leader, Suresh Kumar too tweeted, wondering whether election was necessary for the remaining four months. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dinesh Gundu Rao is another person who thinks LS bypoll is a futile exercise.

Yeddyurappa, Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy

It is said that several prospective candidates have been showing disinclination to fight the election, considering that they have to spend huge amount of money to ensure victory, although the remaining term in LS is only about four months.

But none of the parties are prepared to take the bypoll lightly because of the question of prestige involved. They also know that people will take the LS bypoll results as the indicator for the next year's general election. Therefore, all the parties will fight the three LS seats and two assembly seats with all their strength.

It is being felt that Ramanagara assembly constituency and Mandya LS constituency will go to JD(S), while the Congress will field candidates from Ballari, Jamkhandi, and Shivamogga constituencies. It is said that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar would be made in-charge of elections for Jamkhandi and Ballary seats, while Dr G Parameshwar and KPCC president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, will try to wrest Shivamogga seat from where Yeddyurappa's son, B Y Raghavendra, who will be the most likely candidate from the BJP. The coalition partners, Congress and JD(S), too will get to know the general opinion prevailing in the minds of the people about their performance through the coming bypoll and thereby it can provide guidance for them to fight the next year's LS poll by modifying strategies to suit the occasion.

BJP too may draw up its strategies on the basis of how the party fares in the LS by election.

All the leading personalities from the party, Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy, H Vishwanath, Madhu Bangarappa, and others, will be campaigning for the JDS, Mallikarjun Kharge, Siddaramaiah, Parameshwar, Shivakumar etc of the Congress, Yeddyurappa and national leaders of the BJP will be putting a concerted fight to prove that their popularities have not been dented of late. National leaders of the Congress have advised the local leaders to finalize names of candidates without earning the wrath of the coalition partner.

In a nutshell, the constituencies going to the poll will witness high spending, public programmes, hoardings, and visits by national and state leaders during the run up to the bypoll.