BJP leads in LS poll campaign

While Congress is yet to finalise its candidate amidst a controversy and the Janata Dal (S) appears to be more or less finalising the name of former minister from Kodagu B A Jeevjaya, the BJP candidate C H Vijayashankar is taking a lead in the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in Mysore.

A division in the Congress on caste lines over the choice of the party’s nominee has come to fore after former minister H Viswanath announced that his party had almost finalised his name for the constituency.

A section of the leaders led by former MLA D Made Gowda and senior leader Vasu raised serious objection to Viswanath’s claim - even before the announcement of the nominees for the Lok Sabha seats in the State by the party - and labeling him as an ‘outsider’ to the constituency. They launched a ‘Save Congress’ campaign attracting about 100 Congress workers.

Viswanath, a former MLA from K R Nagar, which now falls under the Mandya parliamentary constituency, had lost in the previous Assembly election.

Another section of the leaders in the Congress, chiefly belonging to the backward classes, are backing the former Mysore district in-charge Minister, as he is seen the right rival for BJP’s Vijayashankar, as both belong to the Kuruba community.

However, the Vokkaliga lobby in the Congress claims that Mysore is a Vokkaliga stronghold and hence a candidate from that section should be the party’s choice for the seat. Unmindful of this controversy, former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is carrying on his campaign briskly in the constituency.

The ‘Save Congress’ campaign launched by the Vokkaliga faction in the party has itself come for criticism by the party’s backward class leaders like Harihar Anand Swamy and V Mallikarjun.

The Janata Dal (S) expected choice is Jeevijaya, a former MLA from Kodagu district. He changed his loyalty from Congress as his constituency came under the Mysore parliamentary constituency, with an eye on JD (S) ticket. However, the Mysore district leaders of the party appear to be sore over the party’s likely choice here too. Among the aspirants for the party ticket are former MLAs H C Basavaraju and Sunitha Veerappa Gowda and MLCs S Chikkamadu and

B Chidananda. JD (S) state president H D Kumaraswamy has already addressed a meeting of the party workers from Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts as part of his campaign.

While this scenario prevails in the Congress and JD (S), BJP made known its choice quite early and sitting MP Vijayashankar is vigorously campaigning in the constituency. He has completed one round of campaign. The party has opened its election office and launched its campaign. Vijayashankar had represented Mysore in the Lok Sabha twice and had lost once against scion of Mysore royal family Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who does not seem to be in the race from Mysore.

However, here too a section of the workers is unhappy over the recent appointments to boards and corporations on the ground that loyal workers had been sidelined.