The Congress (I) piled on the miseries of Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministerial candidate and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa by stating that he was desperate to file his nomination from another constituency as he feared that he may be defeated at Shikaripura constituency in Shimoga.
Manish Tiwari, the spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee said in Bengaluru on Wednesday that Yeddyurappa was perturbed by the fact that S Bangarappa, a winning horse from the Samajwadi Party was pitched against him at Shikaripura.
He also added that the polls conducted by a local newspaper and a news channel was not in favour of the BJP and this has given the party lots to think about.
However, the BJP is sticking to its guns and says there is no decision on Yeddyurappa contesting the elections from a second constituency.
A senior BJP leader told rediff.com that initially Yeddyurappa was contemplating filing his nomination papers from a second constituency, especially after he realised that all other parties were jointly fighting him.
However, the former CM held talks with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who convinced him against filing his nomination from a second constituency. Jaitley is also the BJP campaign in-charge for the Karnataka elections.
The BJP's senior leadership feels that such a move would give an indication that they were perturbed by the fact that all parties have decided to jointly fight the BJP. Since Yeddyurappa is a CM candidate, it would not gel well with his image. Moreover, it will also put the party on a back foot, the party leadership feels.
The BJP is also riding on a superstitious factor that no chief ministerial candidate has ever lost the elections in Karnataka.
If at all there is a change in stance by the BJP leadership on Yeddyurappa, he would have to file his nomination papers from a constituency in north Karnataka as the last date for filing nominations for the first and second phase of the elections is over.
The last date to file nominations for the third phase of the polls is May 3.