12 LS seats in K’taka to witness high-stake contest

Bengaluru, Mar 16: Karnataka will witness the high-stake contest on at least 12 Lok Sabha constituencies out of a total of 28 seats where two main parties Congress and BJP have announced their candidates, for almost all the seats.

These 12 seats are: Bengaluru Rural, Shivamogga, Mysuru, Gulbarga, Haveri, Davanagere, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, Mandya, and Hassan.

BJP has announced candidates for most of the seats. NDA partner JD-S has started campaigning for the Hassan seat but is yet to announce the candidate for the Mandya seat. The Congress has fielded its candidates in Bengaluru Rural, Shivamogga, Mandya, Haveri and Hassan seats.

Bengaluru Rural has turned into a high-profile seat with the BJP declaring C.N. Manjunath, son-in-law of former PM H.D. Deve Gowda as its candidate. D.K. Suresh brother of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar is the sitting MP here.

The Gowda family wants to defeat Shivakumar’s brother with the help of the BJP and pass on a message that the Vokkaliga vote bank is still behind them. On the other hand, Shivakumar, who managed to break the Vokkaliga vote bank of JD-S during last year’s assembly elections is making all efforts to emerge as the leader of the influential Vokkaliga community.

Sources said that Manjunath has been strategically fielded by BJP as the Bengaluru Rural constituency is spread in four districts of Karnataka that are Ramanagar, Bengaluru Urban, BBMP Central and Tumakuru.

Sources said that since the appeal of JD-S to voters in urban districts like Bengaluru Urban and BBMP Central is minimal, the Gowda family and BJP’s top leadership had decided to field him. BJP leadership will take care of urban segments, while JD-S leaders will cover Ramanagar and Tumakuru regions.

Shivakumar who is all set to stake claims for the post of the Chief Minister after the Lok Sabha election for 2.5 years, has called upon JD-S workers to join Congress. Shivakumar and Suresh are claiming that since the son-in-law of Deve Gowda is contesting from JD-S, it shows that JD-S as a party does not exist.