Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 16: In the words of chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, the coming bypoll for three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies happens to be a semi-final match before the Lok Sabha election scheduled next year. The fight, which is marked by dissent in local units in all the three parties, has thrown up lot of uncertainties.

The fact that the Congress snubbed aside ten local aspirants from Ballari Lok Sabha seat and chose MLC Ugrappa , who is a rank outsider, for the seat, has given rise to heated debate in political circles. Political analysts believe that the choice of Ugrappa, who belongs to Siddaramaiah faction, is a clear indication that in-charge of Ballari bypoll D K Shivakumar could not assert his authority in choosing the candidate.

At the same time, this is a clear ploy to avoid infighting between the factions loyal to local candidates which would have arisen if one of them was preferred over others. Another thing which seems to have gone in favour of Ugrappa is the fact that he is a state level leader of Valmiki community, which is predominantly present in Ballari, and hence he can ably withstand the candidature of J Shanta, sister of Sriramulu, who also belongs to the same community as that of Ugrappa.

Even before the ticket was issued, MLA Nagendra's brother B Venkatesh Prasad had been projected as Congress candidate from this Lok Sabha seat from this constituency. It would be interesting to see what would be Nagendra's reaction to this last minute change in candidature

In other constituencies too, all the three parties have been facing challenge in the form of dissent among local leaders. Particularly the local units of respective parties are angry over choice of candidates. When Anita Kumaraswamy filed her nomination papers at Ramanagara on Monday, no Congress leader other than MLA Muniratna accompanied her. In Mandya too when Shivarame Gowda of the JD(S) went to hand over his nomination, no important Congress leaders were present. The dissent in the respective constituencies among the cadres about the candidates put up by the parties now threatens to spill to Lok Sabha election next year.

Apparently in Shivamogga and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies, leading Congress leaders will not seek votes for the candidates put up by coalition partner JD(S), going by the sentiments prevalent there. Congress, which is hell bent on defeating BJP, has formed a 42-member in-charge team for Jamkhandi led by Dr G Parameshwar, 17-member team led by K J George for Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, 63-member team led by D K Shivakumar for Ballari, six-member committee led by MP D K Suresh for Ramanagara and 15-member committee led by R V Deshpande for Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat.

Whether these teams will be able to work out a magic, and whether the calculations made by the leadership of the party will be known only when the results are announced.