Bengaluru: The Congress and BJP will lock horns on the electoral battleground again in less than a fortnight in Karnataka, as the stage is set for the second phase of elections in the 14 remaining Lok Sabha seats on Tuesday.
It is going to be a straight fight between the ruling Congress and BJP in Parliamentary segments in the northern districts. The JD(S) is not contesting in these seats and is supporting its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner -- the BJP.
The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies. The first phase of polling in 14 seats in most of the southern and coastal districts was held on April 26.
A total of 227 candidates -- 206 men and 21 women -- are in the fray for the second phase.
More than 2.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 28,269 polling stations where voting will take place between 7 am to 6 pm.
The segments where elections will be held on Tuesday are: Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere and Shimoga.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had swept all these 14 seats, defeating Congress and JD(S), which were in alliance and ruling the state then.
Having scored a thumping victory in the Assembly elections last year, the Congress now appears determined to put up a strong show.
Karnataka is the most important state for the BJP in south India as it's only here that it has held power in the past.
Speaking to PTI, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena said adequate security arrangements have been made for Tuesday's polling.
"Around 1.45 lakh polling officials have been deployed across the 14 constituencies. In addition, 35,000 civil police personnel, 65 companies of Central Paramilitary forces and armed police of other states will be deployed for the polling day," he said.
Besides this, 4,000 micro-observers will also be on duty and 17,000 polling stations will be covered by webcasting, he added.
Davangere has the maximum number of 30 candidates, followed by 23 in Shimoga and Raichur has the least number - eight.
Former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri) and Jagadish Shettar (Balgaum), Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar) -- all from BJP; Congress' Geetha Shivrajkumar (Shimoga) -- wife of actor Shivrajkumar and daughter of former CM S Bangarappa and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani (Gulbarga), are among the prominent names in the fray.
Also in the contest are MP and veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, suspended party leader and former Deputy CM K S Eshwarappa -- both from Shimoga, former Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and ex-Minister B Sreeramulu of BJP from Uttara Kannada and Bellary respectively and retired IAS officer G Kumar Naik of Congress from Raichur.
Stakes are high for several Ministers in this phase with their children in fray.
Sons of Ministers Laxmi Hebbalkar and Eshwar Khandre - Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar and Sagar Khandre - are contesting from Belgaum and Bidar respectively, while daughters of Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Shivanand Patil -Priyanka Jarkiholi and Samyukta Patil- are in contention in Chikkodi and Bagalkot respectively.
Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister S S Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, is in the fray from Davangere.
The Congress' performance in the elections, especially in the second phase which covers almost all Lingayat-dominated districts, is crucial, as the party did not win one of them in 2019, and to also check whether the grand old party has managed to retain the support of a section of Lingayats -- considered as the BJP's core vote-base -- which seemed to have somewhat shifted towards it in the 2023 Assembly polls.
The Lok Sabha election is being seen as a big test of sorts for Congress state unit chief D K Shivakumar, who has made no secret of his ambition to become chief minister, amid speculations of change in guard mid-way of the Assembly term. The stakes are also high for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, as victory in this election is seen as key to strengthening his hands, analysts say.
It is also seen as a kind of a "litmus test" for state BJP president B Y Vijayendra, who has the onerous task of helping the party retain its supremacy in the Lok Sabha polls, by regaining its traditional Lingayat vote-base.
Ensuring a BJP sweep is paramount for the son of veteran leader B S Yediyurappa, to consolidate his position and silence critics who have questioned his selection to the post, overlooking seniors and seasoned hands.
The ruling Congress is mostly banking on the implementation of its populist five guarantee schemes while the BJP seems to be leveraging the "Modi factor" to the hilt.
Comments
RESPECT the REAL MAATHA who want her daughter to be happy.
We have seen bandh for price hike,murder etc...
No imposing bandh for somebody getting married ...
Modi's intolerant group sending wrong message to the world
If Muslim girl go with Hindu boy then there is no problem for RSS or Sangaparivar What a mindset is their ? here government should do their duty (keep the Law & Order) without any partiality then only we can live here peacefully
RSS IS ONLY GOOD FOR THESE TYPE OF WORKS..
BARATH MATHA HOLDING SAFFRON FLAG NOT INDIAN FLAG REAL INDIAN LOVERSSS THESE RSS...
Zameer Mysur.......If the girl is a Muslim, and the boy is Hindu.....then what will be your reaction / comments
Kisiko mirchi laga kya? Burnol moment
Karnataka is still in India right? Are you some kind of a challenged person?
Vote bank politics of BJP will not work here....I am sorry...
best thing for them to do is let those sweet hearts get marry...wish them a good conjugal life....best part of it is these sweet hearts did not run away from their parents....
It is not function of RSS to provide protection to those people, its for the state to do so, in which it has utterly failed. Your argument is like, yeah he might be thief but rather than arresting him why dont you beef up security of your home, that's just absurd. Rather than calling upon reforms in islamic faith you are saying-\fine to a certain extent is true\" this meek response is just like justifying this as a natural state of affairs."
lets say if this so called Love Jihad exists, though you must not call every inter-religious marriages as Love Jihad. Second point is, RSS is saying muslims and other religions use marriages as a tool to increase their numbers, fine at certain extent its true, since at some point the couples are forced to convert to other religions to convince their parents and community, the religious community, but mind it, you can't call it Love Jihad, but it is due to the mind set of other religions, its a fact you have to accept it. But, if RSS is soo great and right then what they must do is to protect the people who do inter-religious marriages without conversion. Will they ever do that ?.... I don't think so, what RSS is trying to do is the opposite, they want to use marriages as a tool to increase the Hindu population. As a Hindu I can never support that, there is nothing great about it !!
Soon the sanghis will take back India to stone age!! What are they upto? Marriage is purely a personal affair between two individuals, no matter what religion or caste they belong to. As long as the two individuals have consented others have no business in coming in their way. All Indians should unite and fight against the atrocities of sanghis against the fundamental rights of every citizen. This kind of hooliganism shall not be tolerated any more.
These acts of \intolerance\" are the result of the one-sided tolerance that incessantly takes place in our society, and which imparity is routinely ignored by the secularists. Hindus marrying Christians or Muslims are invariably required to convert, and/or their children brought up in the non-Hindu faith. In the rare case where a Muslim may convert out of his or her own volition, the end is often bloody and tragic as I can personally vouch from observation. It is invariably the Muslim party's own family that slaughters one or both individuals. And these are not country hicks who don't know better... these are well-educated urbane families that are doyens of the society that they dwell in!"
And Salutes to the genius RSS member who invented the term and the great 'Philosophy' behind it!
In a hypocrite country like ours it feels great to see a Hindu band at a Muslim wedding and a Muslim band at Hindu one secular love.
Girl's dad has no issues but for Chaddis it's LJ, put them out of the society.
It is a constitutional right of the Girl & the Boy. Those who oppose this are actually opposing the constitution, and hence are Anti-Nationals. BJP as a political party should be banned for being anti-constitution.
Put them all behind bar for lifetime, then our country will live in peace.
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