Karnataka: In Nanjangud, Gundlupet, can sympathy win votes?

Bengaluru: By a strange coincidence both the Congress and BJP seem to be banking on people's sympathy to see their respective candidates sail through the Nanjangud and Gundlupet by polls of April 9.

While Ms Gita Mahadevaprasad,  wife of the late former minister, H.C. Mahadev Prasad, is hoping people's sympathy for her tragic loss will convert into votes in Gundlupet, her opponent,  KR Niranjankumar of the BJP is also hoping the people will sympathise with  his narrow loss  to Mr Mahadev Prasad  in both the 2008 and 2013 assembly polls and vote for him this time.

Ms Gita, who surprised everyone by readily agreeing to contest the bypoll, appears to believe there is a sympathy wave in her favour and is willing to cash in on it.

In Nanjangud, former minister,  V Srinivasprasad, who has been licking his wounds since being dropped unceremoniously from the state Cabinet by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and joined the BJP a few months ago, is banking on the people's sympathy for the "insult" he suffered to see him through.

He is also clearly hoping the constituency, which has a large number of Dalits,  will back him because he is a Dalit, who has "suffered" at the hands of the Congress in the sunset of his career.  But Mr Kalale Keshavamurthy, who has been fielded by the Congress,  is also playing the sympathy card as he lost to Mr Srinivasaprasad by a narrow margin in 2013.

If the people of Gundlupet vote for Ms Gita Mahadevprasad,  Mr Niranjankumar will have to put up with a third rejection and if they vote for him, she could go into political oblivion. For Mr Srinivasprasad the disappointment could be much worse if the sympathy factor works in favour of Mr Keshavamurthy as this is likely to be his last poll battle.

CM Ibrahim blasts PM
At Doddakavalande in Nanjangud which has a large population of  Muslims, veteran leader, C.M. Ibrahim  claimed PM Narendra Modi did not realise that demonetisation would harm the economy just "like a mad woman (huch munde) who did not realise that it was her own husband, who had died when she spoke of the death of the husband of his second wife." He  warned that Yeddyurappa would be used by the BJP and then discarded.