Cong, BJP locked in direct contest in B'lore; Both hope to romp home

In Bengaluru, it’s a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress. The grand old party, which was on the back foot until recently, has put up an intense fight, to revive itself, in the IT capital of India. The BJP, which has been holding all the three seats for two terms in a row, is still banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to emerge victorious despite the initial enthusiasm having died down.

In Bengaluru south, one of the safe seats for the BJP, where the party fielded Tejaswi Surya instead of Tejaswini, wife of late union minister Ananth Kumar, faced resistance from his party cadres. Even in the last two days, as the election campaign came to a close, the local BJP MLAs were missing from the campaign trails of Surya, a lawyer with a strong RSS background. MLAs such as V Somanna, R Ashok and Sathish Reddy, who weren’t present during his nomination filing, questioned the party’s choice of candidate.

Speaking to The Federal, V Somanna on Wednesday said, “There is no Tejasvi. It’s all about Modi this time. “We are not here for our candidate but here for our PM. I can only answer that I will give a lead in my segments.” Even on the last day of campaigning, the BJP leader, MLA Ashok, who is responsible for Tejaswi’s win, was at the Mysore-Mandya rallies. On caste lines, while Brahmin votes are crucial for the BJP, a lesser known Brahmins’ association, in one of the wards in Bengaluru, has come out in support of the Congress party.

Surya’s opponent, B K Hariprasad, the Rajya Sabha MP hopes the anti-BJP and anti-Tejaswi votes, apart from the non-Brahmin votes will go in his favour. Congress tried to convey to the voters the dictatorial mindset of the BJP by talking about the gag order by a lower court that barred media houses from publishing articles against Tejaswi. The order was later set aside by the Karnataka High Court.

That said, Tejaswi hopes that the rallies held by BJP national president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will boost people’s moral as both invoked the nationalism pitch in the city.

Meanwhile, in the Bangalore Central region, Congress has pushed hard to promote Arshad Rizwan (39), who in turn is banking on the party’s local leadership. Cabinet minister Zameer Ahmed Khan who quit the Janata Dal (S), MLAs such as N A Haris, K J George, and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao support candidates who hail from the grassroots. The party even brought in actor Kushboo to woo Tamil voters in the region.

The incumbent BJP MP P C Mohan, who defeated Rizwan by 1.3 lakh votes in the previous election, banks on his pro-development initiatives in the city.

But the bigger problem for Rizwan is not PC Mohan, but Actor Prakash Raj, who has ensured a triangular contest. Raj, a staunch opponent of the Sangh Parivar and BJP, contesting as an independent, could take away a share of the anti-BJP votes from Rizwan.

Similarly, in Bengaluru North, the joint party candidate Krishna Byre Gowda is known for airing pro-people views on the suburban railway, steel flyover projects, and inclusive city policy for Bangalore’s expansion. His popularity among young voters, the Vokkaliga tag, the JD(S) votes along the city’s outskirts, could go in his favour. As a former agriculture minister, he understands the rural issues and could pocket votes from the erstwhile rural areas, now part of Bengaluru.

While incumbent BJP MP and Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda, defeated Byre Gowda by a margin of 37,000 votes in 2009, banks on his development works and the Modi factor. Sadananda Gowda, who hails from Coastal Karnataka, contested from Bangalore North to defeat C Narayana Swamy of Congress in the Vokkaliga belt.

The Karnataka Congress working president Eshwar Khandre said, the pro-people policies at the state level, anti-people policies at the centre and “wrong” selection of the candidate by the BJP (In Bengaluru South) could work in their favour.

“We will bag all the seats in Bengaluru this time,” Khandre adds.