Poll battle ahead: Parties gird loins to launch campaigns

BENGALURU: The political temperature in Karnataka is set to rise this November: Leaders from the three prime political parties – Congress, BJP and JD(S) – will formally commence their whirlwind tours across the state to shore up their respective poll fortunes.

While the BJP will flag off its much-hyped 75-day Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartan Yatra (a campaign for state’s total transformation) in Bengaluru on November 2, in the presence of party national president Amit Shah, the Congress has decided to rev up its engine by celebrating former PM Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary in Chikkamagaluru – the parliamentary constituency that gave her political rebirth – on November 19. The JD(S), led by former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, will kickstart its poll campaign on November 1 from Mysuru.

“With assembly elections scheduled to be held around May next year, political parties are getting into poll mode. November marks an interesting phase in the state’s political chapter as parties begin to push the gas pedal to increase visibility,” political trackers maintain.

The JD(S), for which 2018 will be a do-or-die poll battle, is desperate to up its popularity in the Old Mysuru region – which has been a JD(S) stronghold and is dominated by the Vokkaliga community. With chief minister Siddaramaiah’s caste arithmetic turning out to be a major threat for the party, JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy had decided to commence his poll campaign in Mysuru’s Chamundeshwari assembly constituency -- Siddaramaiah’s turf.

The BJP will use the Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartan Yatra in Bengaluru as a platform to attack the Siddaramaiah government. “Though the immediate priority for Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi is the Gujarat assembly poll, the duo wants to set the ball rolling in Karnataka with the yatra,” a BJP leader said.

BJP national general secretary (Karnataka in-charge) Muralidhar Rao said: “Six BJP workers on three motorcycles from each of the 27,000 booths in south Karnataka will participate in the yatra, to be held at Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC). BJP is determined to free the people from the corruption and bad governance of the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah. The yatra will expose the misdeeds of the government and make Karnataka a Congress-mukt state.”

Meanwhile, the Congress has also decided to intensify its counter-attack by organizing two rallies. The first one will be kickstarted by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who will undertake a three-day tour of the state from November 19. He is scheduled to attend a massive public rally the same day at Chikkamagaluru, the constituency that re-elected his grandmother Indira Gandhi in a bypoll in 1978 after she lost the 1977 election in Rae Bareli. In fact, Indira’s victory in Chikkamagaluru had helped her return to power in 1980.

“The Congress rally, to be presided over by Rahul Gandhi, will mark the birth centenary celebrations of Indira Gandhi and also galvanize the party to take on the BJP, which is desperate to come to power in Karnataka, the only major non-BJP state in the country now,” a Congress leader said. Later, Rahul Gandhi is expected to address a public rally in the coastal town of Udupi where he will express solidarity with the fisher community in their demand for a national fishing policy.