Candidates take a campaign break

There was a lull in electioneering for the Lok Sabha polls in the State on Tuesday.

Most candidates, barring those from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), took a break from hectic roadshows to celebrate Ugadi in their home towns.

Campaigning is expected to go full steam from Wednesday till April 15, the last day of the hustings. While sporadic poll meetings were held in parts of the State, a majority of the candidates in Bangalore confined themselves to visiting influential leaders in their constituencies.

BJP’s H N Ananth Kumar visited Mangalore and D V Sadananda Gowda flew to Delhi to meet his party’s national leaders. Their Bangalore Central candidate P C Mohan went about meeting people at a local park.

With most party workers away in their home towns celebrating Ugadi, campaigning came to a virtual halt on Tuesday. “We are starting our campaign from Wednesday in Gandhi Nagar,” said the Bangalore Central MP’s secretary.

While Bangalore Central Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad visited a school for blind, the Bangalore North aspirant C Narayanaswamy held meetings with community leaders.

Janata Dal (Secular) candidates Nandini Alva and Abdul Azeem took time off to meet their party leaders. “I decided to meet a few top leaders in the Bangalore North constituency and prepare for campaigning on Wednesday,” said Azeem, who is scheduled to hold a public meeting in Sunkadakatte with H D Deve Gowda as the star campaigner.

Alva is also scheduled to start her campaign with her son-in-law Vivek Oberoi either on Thursday or Friday. In Kolar, JD(S) candidate K Kesava visited villages and his Congress counterpart K H Muniyappa will begin campaigning on April 4.