Campaigning ends amid high drama

The campaigning for the November 3 bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka came to an end Thursday, with the BJP facing a major setback following its Ramanagara candidate L Chandrashekar’s withdrawal from the contest.

Bypolls for three Lok Sabha constituencies - Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya and two Assembly constituencies - Ramanagara and Jamkhandi, will be held on November 3.

Though electioneering for the bypolls was not as elaborate as the Assembly elections held earlier this year, leaders of the three major political parties were seen making a last attempt at wooing the voter, in the hope of sweeping the polls.

The ruling coalition partners, who are fighting the elections unitedly, have jointly fielded candidates in Shimoga, Bellary and Jamkhandi.

While Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy chose to stay away from campaigning for his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy on the last day (given that she faces no contest), his father and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda addressed a rally for his party candidate L R Shivaramegowda in Nagamangala. Gowda urged the Congress and the JD(S) leaders and workers to bury their differences and help the coalition candidate get elected. Shivaramegowda is pitted against BJP’s Siddaramaiah, who is a retired bureaucrat.

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Bellary, which is witness to a high-pitched battle between BJP’s J Shantha and Congress’s V S Ugrappa, saw saffron leader B Sriramulu and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar trading charges against each other through separate press conferences.

Former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and Jagadish Shettar campaigned in Jamkhandi for Congress candidate Anand Nyamagouda and BJP candidate Srikanth Kulkarni, respectively. BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa went around the constituency seeking votes for his son B Y Raghavendra, who is trying his luck for the second time in the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency.

Ramanagara was the only constituency which witnessed high drama on Thursday, with the BJP workers staging protests against Chandrashekar, for “betraying” the party.