The Congress has set its hopes on winning the February 26 Gandhinagar ward by-poll, being held following the murder of its party corporator S. Nataraj in Malleswaram on October 1 last year.

While traditionally, Gandhinagar (ward 94) has been a Congress stronghold, the by- poll may not be a cakewalk for it considering that the slain corporator had won the 2010 BBMP polls by just 528 votes. But the party is banking on the minority and slum votes in addition to the presence of Gandhinagar MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao to see it past the winning post. It also believes there is a sympathy wave in its favour due to the corporator’s murder.

While Congress candidate, Gopalakrishna, says he is confident of winning with a big margin, BJP's G. Ramachandra, a former corporator of Chickpet ward who was defeated during the last polls from here, appears to be counting on “the blessings” of Bengaluru (Central) MP, P. C. Mohan to see him through. While Mr Mohan is already campaigning for him, Mr Ramachandra, who is a former chairman of the standing committee on works and town planning, is also looking forward to ministers and MLAs of the BJP campaigning for him from Thursday.

The Janata Dal (S), meanwhile is hoping that fielding new entrant, P. K. Suresh, for the by-poll will do the trick for it. Mr Suresh himself claims he enjoys the backing of slumdwellers and minorities who are unhappy with the BJP government. Also in the fray are Ashwath Narayan of the JD-U, Yuvaraj of the AIADMK and four indepdendents.