Bengaluru: The floods in Kodagu and the heavy monsoon in coastal and interior Karnataka have put a dampener on the campaigning of all the political parties for the 102 local bodies polls scheduled for August 31. With the media too focused on a devastated Kodagu district, the campaigning by the parties has largely gone unnoticed.
“The floods and unprecedented rains have badly affected the campaigning for the local body polls. But compared to the ruling Congress and JD(S), the BJP has reached out to a greater number of urban voters,” said BJP state general secretary and party core committee member, N. Ravikumar, elaborating that the party had managed to campaign in all 102 urban local bodies across 21 districts in the state.
“Our teams, headed by state BJP chief, B.S.Yeddyurappa, and senior leaders, Jagadish Shettar, K.S.Eshwarappa and R. Ashok, have visited both the rural and urban areas,” he added. Campaigning in Chincholi taluk of Kalaburgi district, the BJP leader claimed that as urban voters were educated and were aware of the “unholy alliance” between the Congress and JD(S) in the state, they would not vote for the two parties in the coming polls. “The BJP will win the highest number of local body seats this time,” he asserted.
The local body polls were first scheduled to be held on August 29, but were postponed to August 31 due to the floods in Kodagu. While elections will be held to 29 CMCs, 53 TMCs and 20 TPs, elections to Somwarpet, Kushalnagar and Virajpet town panchayats have been postponed due to the floods.
