BENGALURU: With the last date for withdrawal of nominations over, campaigning for elections to 25 legislative council seats has gained momentum.
Candidates of all parties have begun reaching out to voters, who are members of rural and urban local bodies, personally as well as through conventions. While chief minister Basavaraj Bommai launched the party’s campaign on Friday from Tumakuru, his cabinet colleagues and MLAs will hit the campaign trail from Sunday.
The BJP, which is contesting 20 seats, is under pressure to win at least 13 to get a simple majority in the 75-member house. Falling short of this goal means the party will have to be at the mercy of the Congress and JD(S) to get important bills passed in the upper house.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC president DK Shivakumar and other senior functionaries will also start campaigning for Congress candidates from Monday. According to sources, the party has drawn up a tour programme of both the senior leaders.
The party wants to win more seats in these elections and thereby create a tempo in its favour ahead of the assembly elections.
“The poll results will have no immediate political implications, but it will definitely help gauge the mood of voters besides setting the tone for the assembly elections which are just one-and-a-half years away. So the party will make an all-out effort to win as many seats as possible,” said a Congress functionary.
Meanwhile, Shivakumar met SR Patil, opposition leader in the legislative council, on Friday night to assuage the latter’s hurt feelings. Patil has been sulking ever since the party denied him a ticket to contest the polls from Vijayapura.
After the meeting, Patil said he would abide by the party’s decision and work for the candidates’ victory in the council elections. “The Congress is like a mother to me and I’ll follow whatever decision the party has taken. I’ll never ever go against it,” he said.
