Hebbal by-poll: Rehaman campaign gets the Siddaramaiah boost

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was gearing up for a blistering campaign during zilla and taluk panchayat polls to win not less than 20 districts, will now have to leave the major part of the campaigns in many districts to his colleagues. Reason: The prestigious Hebbal by-poll for which he will have to devote a lot of his time to electioneering, and  byelections in Deodurga and Bidar.

The CM seems to have put the bitterness over the rejection of his candidate for Hebbal, Byrathi Suresh, behind and decided to wholeheartedly campaign for the official candidate, Rehaman Sharief, grandson of Congress veteran Jaffer Sharief. He did campaign for a whole day in Hebbal on Sunday. Sources said that on February 10 or 11, he will campaign again for Rehaman Sharief.

The reason for the CM burying the hatchet with his rivals and deciding to work for the victory of Rehaman is his determination to wrest the Hebbal seat from BJP to prove his dominance over the party and Bengaluru city as well. Mr Siddaramaiah is learnt to have promised the high command that he would ensure Mr Rehaman’s victory at any cost despite efforts by the BJP to retain the seat and now has high stakes in the poll battle. But to make sure that he does not neglect the ZP-TP polls, the CM has reportedly decided to visit two districts a day to cover all 30 districts in the next 18 days.

This is besides attending divisional level party workers meetings starting with Mysuru division. Priority is being given to the districts going to ZP/TP polls on February 13.  Food and civil supplies minister Dinesh Gundurao told DC  that all district in-charge ministers and party legislators have been instructed to get involved in the ZP/TP polls to make sure the party wins the maximum number of ZPs. Since the CM will be busy addressing rallies across the state in the next 18 days, no one should expect him to concentrate on any particular district, he explained.