Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Dec 26: Fight between veteran politicians is hotting up in the twin districts as the D-day of legislative council election from local bodies constituency is approaching fast. With each passing day, rebel Congress candidate, Jayaprakash Hegde, seems to be cementing his prospects. This development has left many Congressmen wondering whether the party was right in giving another chance to Pratapchandra Shetty, former MLC and MLA. There are many who swear by the fact that the party was wrong in giving ticket again to Shetty, who had announced earlier about his reluctance to fight another election.

As per reports, internal survey conducted by the Congress as well as intelligence reports have shown a clear tilt of voters in favour of Hegde. Although both BJP and Congress have asked its voters to use only first preference votes to ensure that their respective official candidates win, the members of gram panchayat are not bound by the party diktat. There are rumours that a number of BJP voters are in favour of casting their second preference votes to Hegde, thus brightening his prospects. The fact that several BJP leaders have good opinion about Hegde is another point of worry for the Congress.

At the press conference held here on Friday, Hegde had expressed confidence of becoming victorious merely on the basis of first preference votes. When he was questioned about rumours doing the rounds that he had the tacit support of chief minister, Siddaramaiah and some other Congress leaders, he remained non-committal, by just saying that no state leaders had come here to canvass for the party, and that he had only been called over phone once by Siddaramaiah to request him to withdraw his candidature.