Civic elections to set tone for LS poll tie-ups

Major political parties in the state, the Congress, the BJP, the JD(S), are seeing the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls scheduled to be held on August 31 as a precursor to launch their campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

Polls will be held to 105 ULBs including three city corporations of Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru, between 7 am and 5 pm on that day. The JD(S) and the Congress, who are alliance partners in the coalition government that completes 100 days on Thursday, are going it alone in the municipality polls. The thinking was that an alliance in pockets where the Congress has a straight fight with the JD(S) would help the BJP make electoral inroads.

The outcome of the polls is unlikely to threaten the stability of the government but will definitely set the tone for pre-poll tie-up between alliance partners for the Lok Sabha polls. As many as 8,340 candidates are in fray from 2,529 wards in 105 urban local bodies across the state. While public campaigning ended on Wednesday, candidates can continue with the door-to-door campaigning till Thursday. Counting of votes will be taken up on September 3.

All the three parties are looking at winning a maximum number of seats to galvanise the party cadres for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress has entrusted the task to jurisdictional local leaders and legislators to ensure victory of its candidates. The BJP formed three teams each headed by BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa as part of its campaign programme. However, heavy rains dampened campaigning in several districts.

The JD(S) strategised its campaigning by categorising the ULBs into three ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. Category ‘A’ included those ULBs which comes under the jurisdiction of a district in-charge minister, ‘B’ which comes under the jurisdiction of a MLA/MLCs and ‘C’ which does not have any elected representative.