The camaraderie witnessed during the 2023 Assembly election is absent this time as Shreyas, grandson of former minister and senior Congress leader Puttaswamy Gowda, battles incumbent Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former prime minister H D Devegowda.

‍

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is busy campaigning in Mysuru-Kodagu and Chamarajanagar while Karnataka Congress chief and Deputy Chief minister D K Shivakumar is shuttling between Bengaluru Rural -- where his brother and sitting MP D K Suresh is the party candidate -- and other constituencies in Bengaluru City.

‍

Last year, the Congress had won five seats and JDS three out of the eight assembly segments under Hassan. But most of the Congress legislators have not come out yet to campaign for Shreyas in their constituencies. Even party veterans like B Shivaram have stayed away, demonstrating their displeasure over the candidature of Shreyas, an upcoming leader.

A Congress functionary told Bol India Bol that thanks to lack of supervision, the local leaders were acting up. “They will emerge during the visit of the party bigwigs and again go back into their shells. There is no one to listen to Shreyas's woes because everyone is busy looking after his own interests,” he said.

‍

In contrast, Prajwal has been covering every village, along with his father and MLA H D Revanna, brother and MLC Suraj and mother Bhavani, an MLA-aspirant.

‍

"If the state leaders don't act soon and support Shreyas, JDS will have it easy here,” said another Congress leader.