Political parties consider GP polls as prestige issue in Mysuru region

Though the gram panchayat elections, the largest in terms of number of seats and candidates, are held not on party symbols, the political parties in the region have taken the election as a pride. The elections for GP is scheduled for December 22 and 27.

With the frontline leaders taking a plunge into GP elections, the elections are taking taluk panchayat (TP), zilla panchayat (ZP) and Assembly elections way. The political parties are backing the candidates and campaigning in party’s name.

The political parties - JD(S), Congress and BJP - are preparing for the election and planning out strategies to strengthen the party at the grassroots level. Compared to the JD(S) and the Congress, the BJP has taken the election as a challenge and the party leaders, including ministers and state-level leaders have started campaigning through Grama Swarajya conventions.

The BJP leaders had organised the conventions much before the announcement of the elections. District In-charge Minister S T Somashekar and other ministers had participated in the convention.

Somashekar said, “BJP has taken the election as a prestige and the election is an opportunity to strengthen the party at the ground level. We are making all the possible efforts to strengthen the party. The candidates backed by BJP will win the polls.”

Like the BJP, the Congress and the JD(S) leaders are also working out strategies to win the polls and state-level leaders will campaign for the candidates. The Congress party is planning to launch the campaign in a big way and is planning to bring state leaders for election campaign. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, former minister Dr H C Mahadevappa and others will campaign for the candidates.

Similarly, regional party, JD(S) is also gearing up for the polls. The party leader H D Kumaraswamy recently opined that the BJP’s ‘Gram Swarajya’ will not work out in the GP elections. “GP election system is different than others. I will give an opportunity to the party workers to elect their leaders in GP level,” he said.

The farmers associations and organisations are planning to field their candidates for the GP polls. Farmer leader Badagalapura Nagendra said, “We want to show our strength and are planning to field candidates. Farmer’s association along with Raitha and Dalit Sangarsha Samiti has planned to field candidates.”