Bye-poll: Stage set for triangular fight

The stage is set for a triangular fight for the seat to the Karnataka Legislative Council from the Dharwad Local Bodies Constituency.

Candidates from the BJP, the Congress and the KJP filed their nominations at the DC's office in Dharwad on Monday which was the last date for submitting their nominations. The bye-elections will be held on August 22.

The Janata Dal (S), which has a minimal strength in the local bodies of the district, has not fielded any candidate. The party is yet to announce its stand on whether it supports any of the candidates or is neutral.

Pradeep Shettar, younger brother of former chief minister Jagadish Shettar is the BJP candidate, while Nagaraj Chabbi is the Congress nominee. Shivaraj Sajjanar whose resignation necessitated the by-election is also in the fray as the KJP candidate. Last time, he had won on a BJP ticket. All the three candidates arrived with their supporters and filed the papers. Though the process of filing the nominations had commenced on July 29, no one had filed their papers till Monday.

The Congress candidate took out a procession from the historic Ulavi Chennabasava temple to the Deputy Commissioner's office before filing their nomination papers. The BJP candidate Pradeep Shettar was accompanied by former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, former minister Basavaraj Bommai, BJP State president and MP Prahlad Joshi, MLA Aravind Bellad, party district president M R Patil, Mohan Ramadurg and others.

Ex-ministers C M Udasi, Jabbar Khan Honnali, party leaders Ashok Katwe, Nehru Olekar and others were with Sajjanar.

For both Pradeep Shettar and Nagaraj Chabbi, this is the first election they are fighing while for Sajjanar it is his second. Sajjanar had resigned his seat to join the KJP and contest the assembly elections from Byadagi in Haveri district only to lose the contest.

Janata Dal (S) which has minimal strength in the local bodies of the district has not filed any candidates. The party is yet to announce its stand on supporting any of the candidates or remaining neutral.

The leaders of all the parties exuded confidence that their candidates will win with a comfortable majority. RDPR minister H K Patil said, most members of local bodies were Congress supporters and hence the victory would be smooth. In addition to this, the policies and programmes of the Siddaramaiah government would help attract votes, he added.

Former CM Jagadish Shettar also claimed that a majority of the members in local bodies were from the BJP and that would help the BJP retain the seat. KJP leader C M Udasi exuded confidence that Sajjanar will repeat the feat. However, observers feel that it will be a fight between the Congress and the BJP and it is a matter of prestige for both the national parties.