Candidates await D-day with bated breath

After three days of restlessness, the results will be finally out

The results of the elections to the urban local bodies in Chintamani is being anticipated with bated breath.

The City Municipal Council (CMC), that went to polls on Thursday, has kept the candidates on their toes, who are anxious to know their fate.

All the candidates, who have their hopes tied down for the great day, will be present at 8 am itself, at the counting centres. The counting of votes will be held on the premises of the Government Polytechnic College in the town. While most of them are trying to face the D-day with poise and restrained emotions, yet the anxiety and anxiousness is largely writ on their faces.

After a gap of three days, the wait for the candidates will be finally over for them on Monday. While the rumour mills are doing the rounds, the political pundits are trying to analyse the outcome of the results. The people are also curious to know which party has bagged the maximum number of votes.

For, the election results are going to play a crucial role in predicting the outcome of the forthcoming elections to the Assembly.

The results might as well influence the Assembly polls too. The political parties will have to chalk out further plan of action for preparing for the polls too. The elections to the CMC might not just leave its influence on the town, but might also be the yardstick to the neighbouring areas too.

Politics is no longer the cup of tea for politicians alone. There are other persons too, for whom the subject might be of top interest. Realtors, social workers, industrialists, etc, are also keen to know about the political developments.

All in the fray

In the present elections, the candidates belonging to the Congress, the BJP and the JD(S), apart from the candidate belonging to legislator Dr M C Sudhakar’s faction, are all in the fray. However, the real fight is between the candidate belonging to Sudhakar’s faction and the JD(S) candidate.

Going by the previous records of the CMC elections, there has been a long-standing political feud between MLA Sudhakar and former minister K M Krishna Reddy. Efforts by a third party to break the feud and pave for the victory has also failed to yield any results.

This is for the first time that K M Krishna Reddy has remained silent by not fielding any of his candidates. Hence, the tie this time is between the JD(S) candidate and the candidate from Sudhakar’s faction. Apart from them, no other candidate belonging to any other party can gain an entry into the CMC.

In the previous elections too, as many as 18 candidates belonging to the legislator’s faction and 13 members belonging to the JD(S), had been elected to the CMC. And this time too, most of them are of the opinion that the candidates belonging to the legislator’s faction and the JD(S) would win the maximum number of seats in the CMC.

Election gimmick

Meanwhile, the Congress party has not been able to gain an entry into the CMC so far. When it refused to give B-form to Sudhakar, Sudhakar got his supporters fielded to the CMC elections. The Congress has now tried another gimmick. It has roped in daughter of K M Krishna Reddy, Vani Krishna Reddy, by including her into the party fold and issuing her a B-form to contest the CMC elections. At least, in this manner, the party wants to make its presence felt in the Council.

However, Monday’s results are going to decide the fate of all the candidates who contested from the 31 wards of the town, and thereby, what effects are they going to have on the forthcoming Assembly elections, should be waited upon with curiosity.