Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Aug 3: As the political parties have stepped up electioneering in the five assembly constituencies in the state that are going to the bypoll, these constituencies, which did not witness much political activity of late, have suddenly been experiencing a frenzy of political activity.

All the five constituencies have been experiencing multi-cornered contests, but the real fight is between the Congress, JDS and BJP, except in Govindarajanagar in the city, where the contest is between the BJP and the Congress. The going is not easy for any of the candidates and therefore, every one of them has been trying his best to lure the voters.

Out of the five constituencies that will go to polls on August 18, four were with the Congress Party while the other one was with the JDS. Out of these five legislators, three got elected to the Lok Sabha, while the MLAs of Channapatna and Govindarajanagar joined the BJP. The Congress would like to retain the seats it earlier held and the BJP will try to strengthen its position by bagging all the five seats. The Congress leaders are under compulsion to prove themselves, as the central leadership has accommodated four from the state in the union cabinet, in spite of the party's poor performance in the state in the Lok Sabha election, for lifting the party fortunes in the state. The JDS, which had Ramanagar constituency in its fold, is also interested in gaining a couple of seats in addition to Ramanagar on which it has a stronghold. BJP candidates have never won from any of these constituencies so far.

The opposition parties have been trying to capitalize on issues like delay in the distribution of ration items, load shedding enforced in the state in spite of good rains, poor monetary condition, slow development etc.