Spouses spice up poll trail

Better halves of candidates are out and about seeking votes

As candidates contesting the Assembly elections are making all efforts to woo the voters, their spouses are doing their bit to ensure that their better halves taste success.

For Tabu Gundu Rao, wife of KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, campaigning for her husband has become a part of her daily routine. Not just during elections, she has been running various welfare schemes, especially for women in the constituency for long. Now, she has been making door-to-door visits along with her group of volunteers to seek votes for her husband and the Congress.

The main advantage is the Anna Bhagya scheme that was started during Mr. Rao’s tenure as the Food and Civil Supplies Minister. “The Indira Canteen and the Anna Bhagya scheme are our flagship programmes and people have known my husband through these schemes. The response has been very good,” she said.

The heat and dust of the Hubballi streets do not matter as Shilpa Shettar campaigns for her husband, Jagadish Shettar, who is seeking a sixth win in a row.

Accompanied by a group of volunteers from the Mahila Mandal and the Stree Shakti groups, apart from her close family members, Ms. Shettar starts a her day at 8 a.m. “We take a short break in the afternoon and resume campaigning by 5 p.m. and continue till 10 p.m. every day,” she said. She has been campaigning for three months.

“Some offer us

chaa and

churmuri or

mirchi bhajjis . Some others give us

arishina kumkuma . As we leave home early, we have breakfast outside, sometimes with our supporters,” she said.

Meenakshi, wife of Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, believes in starting the campaign early in the morning. “I’m an early riser and prefer to start early,” she said. Making her way to the far-flung areas of Byatarayanpura constituency, she continues her campaigning till 10 at night. “I first ask the voters to not miss exercising their franchise. Appealing to them to vote wisely, I then seek votes for my husband and the Congress,” she said.

Sugandha Nalwad, wife of physician Mahesh Nalwad, Congress candidate for Hubballi-Dharwad Central, has been going around the constituency appealing to people to seek a change.

“I keep a book and note down all the problems raised by people during our door-to-door visits and hand it over to my husband for inclusion in the constituency manifesto,” she said.