With the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha elections, hectic lobbying has begun for ticket from national and regional political parties in Chitradurga district. This time, workers and supporters of different political parties are demanding ticket for local candidate in view of the district remaining backward owing to the negligent attitude of elected representatives who come to the district from outside.
Though B.N. Chandrappa of the Congress won the Chitradurga Lok Sabha segment with a margin of more than one lakh votes, the district has not seen any significant development so far. Moreover, voters also say that they were misguided by the Congress that Mr. Chandrappa belonged to Madiga community whereas the fact was that he belonged to the Mashala community, which has very little population in the district.
Amid anti-incumbency, the number of aspirants is few in the Congress. The party high command may issue ticket to Mr. Chandrappa again. Moreover, the Janata Dal(S), which is the coalition partner in the State government, may not field a candidate in the Chitradurga constituency.
In BJP, the number of aspirants for party ticket is increasing as leaders want to benefit from the anti-incumbency against the Congress candidate and in view of the Modi wave in the country. B. Thippeswamy, who was deceived by the Congress leaders in the last Lok Sabha elections after being assured ticket, has decided to get ticket from the BJP this time. The other aspirants are Manappa Vajjal, retired DDPI Rangappa, Laksmi Narayan and former MP Narayanswamy.