Big 3 confident of victory in gram panchayat polls

BENGALURU: Elections to 669 Gram Panchayats, scheduled to be held on March 29, with the results due on March 31, have got the three major parties working out strategies and campaign minutiae, unwilling to cede any territory to rivals. Exuding confidence, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and Bharatiya Janata Party state president told The New Indian Express, “We will do well in 500 of the 669 seats.’’ He said the party is meeting early next week to finalise candidates for each one of the 669 seats of the 147 gram panchayats going to polls. The date for filing of nominations is March 19, and the party will compile the list by March 18, so the candidates can file their papers, Kateel said. 

Congress state party president DK Shivakumar said the Congress is working on the panchayat election strategy. “I have directed party colleagues regarding the process of shortlisting candidates for the polls,’’ he said, sounding confident about the party’s performance. “We will do well in the Gram Panchayat wards going to polls,” he added. The party will be meeting on Monday or Tuesday to finalise the names and intimate the candidates, he added. 

JDS leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy told TNIE that his party has already met three or four times to discuss the issue, and that he had instructed party leaders at the district and taluk levels to finalise the list of names, which will be ratified. 

On the BJP’s claim that they would do well in about 500 of the 669 constituencies, he said if they are allowed to say it, they will claim a win in all 669 seats. He ridiculed BJP leaders, saying that last time too, they had said the Gram Panchayat polls were a one-sided affair and they had done well, but a closer examination of the results proved that the JDS and Congress had done better than the BJP. 

While all three parties are confident of winning, the Congress and JDS, having been in the game longer, have traditionally done well in panchayat elections in the past. The BJP’s claim is that it is the ruling party in the State and Centre, and this power will see them through to victory. Whatever their claims, the three parties are preparing for a grassroots battle, right down to the last panchayat seat.