Congress leaders D.K. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah campaigned for Channaraj Hattiholi, party candidate, in some villages in Belagavi district on Sunday.
At a rally in Kallur village near Ramdurg, Mr. Shivakumar described this as an election of self-respect and asked people to vote for Mr. Hattiholi. “You should vote without fear or favour. You should demonstrate to the world that your choice depends on party ideology and the inclusive agenda of the Congress,” he said.
He defended the party’s choice of candidate, saying that it could not be termed nepotism. “We did not give ticket to Hattiholi because he is the brother of Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Congress MLA. We made him candidate as he is a dedicated party worker. He is young and dynamic. He is an engineer and wants to serve the people,” Mr. Shivakumar said.
“Some BJP leaders are constantly criticising the Congress. They keep saying that we promote dynasty politics. This is not true. Everyone knows that if Sonia Gandhi wished, she could have easily become the Prime Minister. But she chose Manmohan Singh, as he was a good administrator. BJP leaders make meaningless allegations just because they are jealous of the Congress’s internal democracy and work culture,” he said.
He recalled that 800 votes were invalid in the last Council polls. “All our party workers should make sure that the gram panchayat members and urban local body members are properly trained about casting valid votes and no vote should go waste,’’ he said.
MLA and district in-charge N.A. Haris, KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi, MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, the former MLA Ashok Pattan, Congress district unit president Vinay Navalagatti and others were present.
