The bypolls to the three Assembly seats, Sandur, Shiggaon and Channapatna, will be held on November 13 and the results will be announced on November 23.
The seats had fallen vacant after former chief ministers Basavaraj Bommai and H.D. Kumaraswamy (currently Union minister) and E Tukaram got elected to Haveri, Mandya and Ballari parliament seats last May.
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The bypolls are bound to be a tough fight for both the ruling Congress and the BJP-JDS alliance.
For the ruling Congress, the polls could serve as a referendum on its performance in the last one year, the implementation of the five guarantee schemes as well as test the party's strength in the three constituencies amid the constant infighting and the allegations of corruption including the MUDA land allotment scam against the chief minister.
The BJP-JDS alliance will once again be testing it's combined strength to take on the ruling party, while trying to iron out its own differences on the issue of picking the right candidate. In Channapatna, the alliance is still mulling over the candidate as the BJP leader and MLC CP Yogishwar (defeated candidate) is hoping to win back the constituency. However, Kumaraswamy wants to retain the JDS' hold and is planning to field his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy.
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Deputy chief minister and KPCC chief DK Shivakumar, who represents the Kanakapura constituency in Ramanagara district, is planning to wrest the Channapatna seat from the JDS to establish his dominance in the district, as the Congress already holds five of the six seats.
Also, the Channapatna, which is in the Vokkaliga heartland, will see all three Vokkaliga leaders fight it out in a bid to stake claim to the community leadership.
The humiliating defeat of DK Suresh, the sitting MP from Bengaluru Rural and younger brother of Shivakumar in the last Parliament elections is another reason why Shivakumar is keen on winning Channapatna.
Yogishwar, a party-hopper who has won the seat multiple times on different party symbols, might turn into a rebel if the party chooses to field Nikhil Kumaraswamy. Nikhil has lost two elections - Mandya parliament elections in 2019 and Ramanagara Assembly polls in 2023.
In Shiggaon, Bommai's industrialist son Bharat Bommai might make his electoral debut if the BJP chooses dynasty politics over its principle. With the Congress party likely to pick a Muslim candidate, the BJP might pick a Panchamasali Lingayat leader and former minister Murugesh Nirani, as the constituency has a sizeable population of both these communities.
The Congress party announced a slew of development programmes in the poll-bound constituencies as part of the "Sadhana Samavesha", where it showcases the completed projects.
The BJP and JDS are banking on the combined force to crush the opponent.
The bypolls, which is emerging as a prestige battle for the bigwigs, will perhaps be a pointer to the upcoming local body elections too.
