Women sweat it out for candidate-hubbies

Giving truism to the adage — Behind every successful man is a woman, spouses of several candidates have been literally sweating it out in the scorching sun along with their candidate husbands, given the high political stakes involved in garnering as much vote as possible to emerge victorious in the elections.  

That beyond the party’s political fortunes, it is personal prestige that is involved, wives of candidates of almost all contestants from City, have been steadfastly by their husbands’ side on their campaign trail, trying to spread their charm offensive among the vote banks in favour of their better halves.

While Congress candidate C Narayanaswamy has wife Geetha with him campaigning, Tabassum is braving the dog day afternoons beside her Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao. 

That high density of minority voters in the Hebbal assembly constituency matters that much more that the spouses are with their husbands.

Looking very much fatigued from the heat and dust of the campaign, Geetha Narayanaswamy, said she was, however, very much enthused by the crowd’s response she received, while compaigning itself was a new experience given that she was reserved in nature. “The sheer presence of people buoyed me to reach out to them,” she said.

Being old warhorse in the campaigning business, given that her husband is BJP Bangalore South constitutency candidate H N Ananth Kumar, Tejaswini, who has been at it for three decades now, on a whirwind tour of BTM Layout II Stage, what a seasoned campaigner she was, as her entourage of volunteers was busy distributing biodata of Ananth Kumar’s achievements. 

Though novice to political campaigning, given that her corporate honcho-turned-Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani is entering the no-holds-barred cut-throat political arena for the first time, Rohini Nilekani, is, however not new to connecting with people having been involved in running her own NGO. Rohini was at it going the whole hog reaching out to voters in her inimitable style in Bommanahalli, meeting people door-to-door and residents of apartment complex in Jayanagar.

It was tough initially, she conceded, as people expect a lot from politicians — from cleaning fallen leaves in parks, to getting more water from Cauvery. With practice, I have become attuned to the pulls and pressures of canvassing, she said.

Similarly, for former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, his wife Datty has been a pillar of support, accompanying him on his campaign rallies and reaching out to voters in Bangalore North.