Karnataka bypoll: Congress sends group SMS

Bengaluru: This is a battle that the Congress took to a whole new level. Alongside the searing temperatures and the blistering attacks during this very heated campaign, as of Wednesday, the Congress Party began bombarding group SMS messages from the candidate, the Chief Minister and the campaign in charge, to everyone they know and don’t know with this plea —  “Dear voters, I sincerely request you to vote me and elect for the overall development of Gundlupet.”

The group SMS sent in the name of Dr Geeta Mahadeva Prasad landed on the mobile of many in Bengaluru who are no way connected with Gundlupet bypolls. Within minutes comes another SMS in the famous baritone voice of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earnestly requesting voters to vote for Kalale Keshavamurthy contesting on the Congress ticket from Nanjangud by-poll. Not to be left behind is D.K. Shivakumar who is the in-charge of Gundlupet.

Considering the by-polls are being fought in remote Chamaraja Nagara and Gundlupet, the ruling Congress party's adoption of text messaging to augment its door to door campaign has set off a buzz, with speculation high that the BJP's full-throttled attack on the Lingayat-Dalit votebank had set off the jitters in the Congress, which cannot afford to be seen allow the BJP's social re-engineering formula of the north to work in the south.

While the CM's was a straightforward pitch, Mr Shivakumar, the poll in charge for Gundlupet by-poll, batted for Dr Geeta by explaining in detail what the party has done for the constituency and Chamaraja Nagar district. “Mahadeva Prasad had a dream for Gundlupet. Help us realise this by voting for his wife, contesting on a Congress ticket in Gundupet."