As political leaders ended their ground-level campaign ahead of the bypolls to 15 constituencies, they continued it not only through door-to-door canvassing on Wednesday but also took it to Twitter to woo nearly 36 lakh voters who are set to exercise their franchise on Thursday.
In a series of tweets with the hashtag #RejectDisqualifiedMLAS, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urged people to vote against disqualified legislators, while the BJP Karnataka with the hashtag #VoteOutCONgress attacked the former Chief Minister over his five-year-rule of the State between 2013 and 2018.
Meanwhile, JD(S) leaders H.D. Kumaraswamy and H.D. Deve Gowda also took to Twitter urging voters to defeat disqualified legislators. “The Supreme Court has considered 17 legislators as disqualified. Nobody should support these legislators,” Mr. Kumaraswamy tweeted.
Soon after the open campaign ended, Mr. Siddaramaiah tweeted: “Reject the disqualified and vote for the qualified. Let this election be a lesson to the defectors and become a model to the nation.” In another tweet, he said: “When the voter goes to the poll booth, he should only remember the betrayal of the disqualified legislators who are now BJP candidates.” Further, he said: “Unethical politics in the name of Operation Lotus was started in Karnataka by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and let Karnataka put an end to it.”
The KPCC also tweeted against the disqualified legislators with the hastag #VoteCongressSaveKarnataka.
In response, the BJP State unit in a series of tweets attacked the Congress and also the former Chief Minister in reference to his five year rule. “Throw away opportunists who are trying to grab power through an unholy alliance,” the BJP tweeted through #VoteBJPToSaveKarnataka.
The BJP said: “The five-year tenure of Mr. Siddaramaiah increased loan burden on Kannadigas. Voters who rejected the corrupt and communal Congress in the 2018 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will reject Congress in the ensuing polls too.”
HDK’s posers to CM
On the eve of the elections, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, in a release, put forward 10 posers to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
He asked a series of questions ranging from who had the numbers when the Assembly was formed to whether his government adheres to the Constitution. Responding to former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna’s claim that he too had a hand in the fall of coalition government, he reminded Mr. Krishna of the help extended by his father H.D. Deve Gowda to gain entry in to the Rajya Sabha.
