While party president H Ningappa claims that Tumkur is JD(S)’s fort that cannot be penetrated by any other party, the delimitation process has left many doubting the validity of this claim.

Moreover with three seniors losing their constituencies it is almost certain that T B Jayachandra of the Congress will face Sathyanarayaran of JD(S)  of Sira. Another competition that Jayachandra will have to face is Gadari Hanumanthappa.

Jayachandra’s supporters and Congress party workers opine that among the three Jayachandra is sure to get more votes as he is the  pioneer to bring Hemavathi water to Sira.  

Meantime since Putteerappa has joined BJP, a state of confusion is prevailing in Sira. However, Jayachandra’s supporters exude confidence that their leader will certainly get Congress ticket to contest from Sira.

Another prominent leader who is on the look out for a constituency is K N Rajanna of Bellave. According to a source Rajanna is likely to contest from Madhugiri. Dr G Parameshwar, who represented Madhugiri till now will contest from Koratagere in all likelihood.

Bellary heat
Former minister C Chennigappa’s son Gauri Shankar is making all sorts of preparations to contest from Madhugiri. Challenging the father-son duo is the ‘Bellary gang’ led by Janardhan Reddy. The mine owners have declared openly that they will make sure that their candidates will stand  in the constituencies where Chennigappa and his son stand.

The news of the possible entry of the Bellary mine owners has brought along with it apprehensions about the kind of money that is going to be spent to woo voters.

Money v/s progress
However, according to senior politician and JD(S) supporter Chandrappa, one should not worry about this as there are factors beyond money that will work in elections. “Nothing will beat the development work done by our people,” he says.

In fact, according to him, even Gauri Shankar is an ‘outsider’ to Madhugiri, not to talk about Reddys who are from a distant district. Hence, he feels that localite K N Rajanna, who has accomplished a lot of development work in Bellave constituency is a step ahead of others in the taluk.

All said and done it is the voter who will ultimately decide the winner. Voter has the ability to make or mar the political destiny of any candidate.

Stiff competition
D Nagarajaiah, a close associate of H D Devegowda’s family has lost his stronghold Huliyurudurga as this constituency is now in Kunigal. He will now have to face a stiff competition in Kunigal.

He will have to face S P Muddahanumegowda of Congress. B Sureshgowda of BJP has spent money like water for the poor of Huliyurudurga.

However, since he has no strong base in this constituency he is eyeing Tumkur rural constituency.
However, senior BJP leader Boregowda has expressed confidence that he will get party ticket to contest from Tumkur rural.

If Sureshgowda does not get a ticket it will not be surprising if he chooses to stand as an independent candidate. However Sureshgowda told Deccan Herald that he is committed to the party and will contest only if he gets a party ticket.

Some sort of confusion has taken over all the eleven constituencies of the district. Especially four constituencies- Madhugiri, Kunigal, Tumkur rural and Sira are now the centre centre of attraction.

WILL YEDDY CONTEST?
There are strong rumours in the district that former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa will be contesting from Tumkur in the coming elections.

However no one, including the BJP Party workers, knows the source of these rumour. It is suspected that it could be the work of some conspiring party workers.

However, according to available information, there are chances of Yeddyurappa contesting from Tumkur are very slim. The only chances are if the present aspirant Sogadu Shivanna, pressurises Yeddyurappa to contest from here.

However, Shivanna himself says that these rumours mean that Tumkur being an aggressive constituency, we have to stand firm.

This means that Shivanna himself would be contesting from here. Workers say that Yeddyuppa is not going to let down Shivanna and he would be contesting from his own constituency.