Bengaluru: Unlike in 2009, when he had just a day to file his nomination from Bengaluru South, RDPR minister, Krishna Byregowda had three full days to prepare to take on Union Minister, D V Sadananda Gowda from Bengaluru North these parliamentary relections.
What's even more comforting for Mr Byregowda is that his home constituency of Byatarayanapura is part of Bengaluru North, which gives him the advantage of familiarity. Besides, five of the eight Assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency are represented by Congress MLAs and two by the JD(S), with the BJP present only in Malleswaram.
But the minister is not making any over confident claims of winning by a huge margin, admitting that the voting pattern in an Assembly election is different from that of a parliamentary poll. He is also aware that all JD(S) votes may not translate into Congress or coalition votes due to the differences among their party workers.
“The problem is that we cannot shake the BJP votes polled during the Assembly elections. But some Congress and JD(S) votes may go to the BJP in a parliamentary poll. My result will depend largely on how far we will be able to arrest these ‘slip away’ votes,” he says. The other problem is the lack of a developmental agenda these elections, in his view. "This election has only one agenda, whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be back or not. Earlier, the BJP voters would at least listen to us. But now, they just try to pick a fight. There is a lot of bitterness among voters, which is difficult to handle. Also, we need to work on coordination between the Congress and JD(S) workers,'' he adds.
Mr Byregowda , however, believes that a large number of lower middle class and middle class voters will back him and the bonus could be employees of the public sector undertaking (PSU), who are against the Centre's policies. "The constituency has several HAL and HMT workers, who are against the Union government. So we could get their votes. Besides, there are 1.2 lakh voters, who are from Kerala," he notes.
While agreeing that he was reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha poll, he says he finally decided to respond to the faith reposed in him by the party. "In December, (KPCC president) Mr Dinesh Gundu Rao started it, but I refused the offer and during seat allotment the constituency went to the JD(S) and we thought (JDS supremo) Mr Deve Gowda would contest from it. But the people from Tumakuru forced him to contest from there. Although he did not tell me this, but Mr Gowda did tell Mr K C Venugopal and Mr Dinesh Gundu Rao that I would be the best candidate in his place. So there was no way I could refuse. In politics, we need to be open to change,'' he explains. It is a learning process and I have a lot to learn. If I get elected, I will learn. If I don't, facing the election will be another experience,” he concludes.
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