Alliance leaders target Kanakapura; DK brothers eye Channapatna

Bengaluru: In the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, which has turned into a battlefield, as both the parties are now eyeing Channapatna and Kanakapura constituencies. Congress is strategising to poach votes in Channapatna, which is dominated by former CM HD Kumaraswamy and MLC Yogeshwar. JDS-BJP has planned to steal votes from DK Shivakumar’s bastion.

If we consider the previous Lok Sabha election voter turnout, the current political development and the performance of the parties in the last assembly, BJP and JDS in Kanakapura and Congress in Channapatna are very poor. Both the parties are committed to damage control in these areas. Thus, everyone’s focus is on these two constituencies.

In Channapatna Assembly Constituency, DK Suresh has lead in two general elections and one by-election. However, in 2013 by-elections and 2014 general elections, Yogeshwar, who was an MLA from the Samajwadi Party, supported him. Although he got the lead of 37,000 votes in Channapatna in the 2019 election, it was not easy for him to get more votes in the background of his alliance with JDS in that election. However, now the situation has changed and JDS and BJP, which are said to be the strongest parties in Channapatna, are facing elections jointly. Congress has lost deposits in assembly elections contested alone.

Keeping all this in mind, the DKS brothers are making efforts to increase their dominance in Channapatna. In addition to conducting political equations in the constituency, MP DK Suresh has been working around more in Channapatna and hounding the opposition leaders. The Congress local leaders of Channapatna have been given the task of getting more votes as a challenge as to ensure that the alliance does not get more votes in Channapatna.

Kanakapura is a very challenging constituency for the alliance. In Kanakapura constituency, which is the stronghold of DKS brothers, the candidates of both the parties lost their deposits in the last assembly elections. Having established their dominance in DK’s stronghold, alliance leaders are strategizing to prevent DK Suresh from taking a cakewalk in the Lok Sabha polls.

A meeting of JDS-BJP workers has already been held in Kanakapura and MLC Yogeshwar has inspired the alliance workers by saying that he will take charge of this constituency.

DK Shivakumar had won the assembly election in Kanakapura by a margin of more than 1.20 lakh votes. This time BJP-JDS strategy is to prevent DK Suresh from getting so many votes. It remains to be seen whether the allied parties will break through the Kanakapura fort.