Mysuru: Minister Sa Ra Mahesh admitted on Wednesday that there was a lack of coordination in campaigning among party workers of the Congress and JD(S) for their respective candidates in Mysuru-Kodagu and Mandya constituencies this Lok Sabha poll.
Speaking to reporters here, he said this was evident even in his assembly constituency of KR Nagar where a few Congress workers were campaigning for independent candidate, Sumalatha Ambareesh and not for Mr Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) candidate for Mandya. "We have brought this to the notice of (former Chief Minister) Mr Siddaramaiah and he has promised to set everything right. The rivalry between Congress and the JD(S) in the old Mysuru region is decades old. But the victory of the JD(S) in Mandya and the Congress in Mysuru has become inevitable for their existence," he added. Meanwhile, Mysuru district minister, G T Devegowda, who has not been seen campaigning in Mysuru-Kodagu as yet, claimed he was waiting to hold a meeting with JD (S) leaders and party workers before get actively involved in the campaign.
He said Congress candidate, C H Vijayshankar and present MP, Pratap Simha of the BJP were both influential in Mysyru-Kodagu and although the coalition partners were struggling to coordinate their campaign, the two men were poised equally to take on each other.
Mr Siddaramaiah, who is head of the Congress- JD(S) coordination committee had struck an optimistic note during his visit to Mysuru last week saying Congress and JD(S) workers of Mysuru would gradually learn to work with each other. "It cannot happen all of a sudden. The JD(S) workers can't vote for the BJP, they have to vote for us," he noted, when asked about the ongoing problem between workers of the two parties.
