JD(S) padayatra off to poor start

The JD(S) Vikasa Parva Padayatra lost steam even before it took off on day one, with party leaders leaving the Basavanagudi candidate stranded, merely a couple of hours into the campaign.

The party gave a start to its Vikasa Parva Padayatra in south Bengaluru on Tuesday, with JD(S) national working president P G R Sindhia and MLC T A Sharavana leading the workers from Basavanagudi, after performing puja at the Dodda Ganapathi Temple in the locality.

Hundreds of party workers traversed through N R Colony, Vidyapeetha Circle, Kathriguppe, Seetha Circle, Girinagar and Srinagar before reaching Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple.

The padayatra started off with much enthusiasm at around 11 am, with workers shouting anti-BJP and anti-Congress slogans, even as many followed the campaign in autorickshaws, on bikes and cars, causing traffic jams along the way.

The padayatra however soon started losing steam, as the handful of leaders (including Sindhia, Sharavana and JD-S MLA K Gopalaiah) left one after the other, deserting the party workers and the JD(S) Basavanagudi candidate Bagegowda.

By the time the padayatra culminated at Gavipuram at around 3 pm, Bagegowda was left alone with a few party workers to cheer him on.

Earlier, Sindhia said that if the JD(S) is voted to power, the party would give thrust to Bengaluru development. He said that though there was a stable government for five years, the Congress government, which could have developed Bengaluru into a model city, failed to do so.

The padayatra is however said to pick up pace on Wednesday as JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy is said to participate in it. The padayatra will criss-cross Padmanabhanagar constituency on the second day.  

The JD(S) plans to take the padayatra through all 28 Assembly constituencies of Bengaluru.

Besides attacking the national parties, the party also plans to highlight the contributions made by Kumaraswamy and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda to Bengaluru.