It's a glut of ticket aspirants for Hebbal byelection

Political activities have gained momentum in the Hebbal Assembly constituency even as the Election Commission is yet to declare the calendar of events for the upcoming byelection.

Jagadish Kumar of the BJP had held the seat and his recent demise has necessitated the bypoll.

The aspirants from all three political parties have swung into action, chalking out various programmes to garner public attention. Interestingly, sitting MLCs, cutting across party lines, are vying for tickets from this constituency.

The Congress, which is way ahead of its opponents in organising these activities, however, has too many aspirants. While, MLC Byrathi Suresh has started ground work by mingling with the voters through his participation in various cultural and religious programmes, MLC H M Revanna too is desperately vying for the ticket.

On Saturday, Revanna and Congress leader Mehaboob Pasha, together organised ‘Srinivas Kalyanotsava’ programme at the HMT Grounds in the constituency.

According to sources, this was done to ‘appease’ Hindu voters. Sources also said that Chief Whip in the Council, R V Venkatesh, too is an aspirant. Other aspirants like Ravi Shankar have also been endorsing their contributions in the Assembly constituency. The party had almost zeroed in on Shankar as a candidate in the 2008 Assembly elections.

In BJPWhile the saffron party is thinking of fielding Kumar’s wife Lalitha, former minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, who was arrested on corruption charges, is also said to be in the race. He had earlier contested and won from the seat. Sitting MLC Y A Narayanswamy too is said to be an aspirant.

Two names in JD(S)
From the JD(S), two names are presently doing the rounds. Sources said that Hanumanthe Gowda, who had unsuccessfully contested from Byatarayanpura in 2008, is vying for the ticket, alongside the party’s Bengaluru Urban Youth president H M Ramesh Gowda.