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Campaigning ends in Bellary

Campaigning for the by-election to the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka ended Tuesday evening. The polling will be held on Thursday.

Compared to the 1999 general elections, when the Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi, and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Susha Swaraj clashed here, the campaigning this time was positively insipid.

The winner of the 1999 election, Sonia Gandhi, gave up the seat (she retained Amethi), necessitating the by-election.

The main contenders this time are: Kollur Basavanagouda of the Congress and K S Veerabhadrappa of the BJP-JD (U) combine. Veerabhadrappa, a former Congressman, joined the BJP recently.

The Janata Dal (Secular) has fielded former minister K Thippeswamy. The JD (S) chief, Deve Gowda, has been camping in the constituency for over a week now overseeing his party's campaign.

Though the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Republican Party of India too have fielded their candidates, their campaigns lack visibility.

For the Congress, which has never lost from Bellary, this is a prestigious seat. Sonia Gandhi's brief association with the constituency has only added to the pressure.

Chief Minister S M Krishna, who also heads the state unit of the party, recently undertook a two-day whistle-stop tour of the constituency covering all the eight assembly segments.

The BJP, which kicked off its campaign much before anybody else did, has made the lack of development activity in the constituency its main poll plank. Naturally, it blames the Congress for the state of affairs.

The BJP national secretary Venkaiah Naidu, former Union minister Kamaluddhin, former chief minister J H Patel and Union ministers Ananth Kumar and Dhananjay Kumar are among the leaders who addressed campaign rallies here in the last two days.

All of them in their speeches criticised Sonia Gandhi for not visiting the constituency to thank the voters after her victory.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made in the constituency to ensure a free and fair poll. There are1,362 polling stations, of which 310 are hyper-sensitive and 606 sensitive.

UNI

Assembly Election 2000

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