Most leaders leave Bagalkot as public campaigning ends

Public campaigning for the bypolls ended in Bagalkot on Tuesday, as per Election Commission of India instruction manual. Polling will be held on Thursday (April 9) and votes will be counted on May 4.

Most of the leaders who were camping in Bagalkot city and surrounding villages left the constituency by Monday night.

Leaders Satish Jarkiholi, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal and others left the constituency and informed the officers concerned, election duty officials said.

Door-to-door campaign began on Tuesday evening and teams of five members started visiting various areas in the city and in different gram panchayats.

There are nine candidates in Bagalkot, but the main contest seems to be between Congress nominee and son of the former MLA late H.Y. Meti Umesh Meti and the former MLA Viranna Charantimath of the BJP.

The Meti siblings who had differed on the selection of the Congress candidate initially later joined all major rallies and campaigned for Umesh Meti.

Several senior leaders, including Ministers B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, H.K. Patil and Ramalinga Reddy, AICC leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, and others campaigned for the Congress.

Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and H.D. Kumaraswamy, the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, MP Govind Karjol, State party president B.Y. Vijayendra, local leader Murugesh Nirani and others participated in the campaign for the BJP.

The two main parties raised different issues in this bypoll that was necessitated by the death of H.Y. Meti.

The Congress leaders kept talking about their achievements like implementation of the five guarantees, fixing compensation for land losers in the Upper Krishna Project and plans for expansion of the Alamtti dam storage by increasing its height.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of following the politics of hate and practicising anti-Muslim and anti-AHINDA policies.

Most Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Minister M.B. Patil, and others focussed on the perceived image of Mr. Charantimath as a leader who is not easily accessible to the public.

On Monday and Tuesday, the State government issued full page advertisements listing the works taken up or planned in Bagalkot constituency.

According to these advertisements, the State government has completed work on a wholesale farmers market in 200 acres, a government PU college and 20 residential schools and a multi-storeyed Gandhi Bhavan cultural complex.

The State government plans to build a government medical college in Bagalkot and lay an airstrip in the city.

The BJP, on the other hand, accused the Congress of practising Muslim appeasement policies. On Monday, Mr. Charantimath released a charge-sheet against the Congress government.

He called it an anti-Hindu party that protected communal elements and jailed innocent Hindus. He said that the Congress government has deliberately delayed the installation of statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Basavanna in Bagalkot.

Mr. Charantimath accused Mr. Siddaramaiah of neglecting Bagalkot and not doing any development work. He said that the government is extremely corrupt. It has looted the State Treasury and supported loot by officers and elected members in the Bagalkot Town Development Authority, he added.