Political activities gather steam ahead of polls

The district is witnessing brisk activities in all the parties, with Assembly elections round the corner. So much so that the parties have started the process of choosing suitable candidates.

Party meetings that used to be conducted once in two or three months have now become a weekly affair. Ticket aspirants are leaving no stone unturned to get noticed by party heads.

Some of them are even planning to invite State-level leaders to their constituencies so that they are ahead in the race for tickets, sources said. Some of the ticket aspirants in major political parties are even ready to hop onto ‘new’ parties, if they are denied tickets in their parties, it is learnt. They may even contest as independent candidates.

Election observers in the Congress and JD(S) have already visited the Assembly constituencies in the district and gathered details about the prospective candidates and also taken feedback from party workers. Sources said that a preliminary test of the winnability of candidates is being done by them.

A few social workers are learnt to have approached party leaders on the basis of their service to the society. They are banking on their services like conducting mass marriage programmes and distributing notebooks to poor students to claim the tickets. They are trying to identify with the parties, it is said.

“Only time will tell whether these social service workers will finally be able to get the tickets. But their rapport with the people will definitely contribute to their chances to get the party tickets,” observed retired officer M Ramamurthy.