Bangalore: For BJP Chikkaballapur candidate B N Bachegowda, the main rival will be his one-time party colleague H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S).
Kumaraswamy is likely to file his nomination papers on Wednesday. Gowda will also file his papers the same day.
Gowda is way ahead of others when it comes to campaigning in Chikkaballapur. Even before the BJP announced his candidature, he had begun the ground work. On Tuesday he was found campaigning briskly at Vijayapura in Devanahalli taluk.
In an interaction with Deccan Herald, the former minister said that the people of Chikkaballapur had branded Union Minister M Veerappa Moily ‘maha sullugara’ (a big liar). Moily is the sitting MP from Chikkaballapur and is seeking re-election from there as a Congress candidate.
The minister had promised a lot for the constituency, but in reality did not nothing, he alleged.
“Moily had promised that ITIs would be set up, a Metro rail link would connect Yelahanka with Bagepalli and a textile park and science city would come up in the constituency. But none of them was fulfilled,” said the BJP nominee.
Gowda said Moily’s promise that water tanks in the constituency would be revived with loan from World Bank had not been kept.
Neither did the Yettinahole water scheme get a push nor was fluoride-free water being supplied as promised, the former minister said. No jobs were generated as claimed by him, Gowda said.
He said that none of the 18 promises in Moily’s manifesto for the district had been fulfilled by Moily. “But as a district in-charge minister, I had released a lot of funds,” the former minister said.
Asked whether the votes of the Vokkaligas would get divided, in case Kumaraswamy enters the fray, Gowda said that the people now know that Kumaraswamy is trying to desert Ramanagara.
“He is an escapist. His family was claiming that Ramanagara gave rebirth to the JD(S). But why is he running away from Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency?,” he said.
Chikkaballapur is not a BJP bastion as such. It has a presence in Hoskote, Yelahanka, Nelamangala and Doddaballapur among the eight Assembly segments. But the candidate is hoping to cash in on the ‘Modi wave’ to win.
