By IANS
Bangalore : Galvanised by United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) presidential nominee Pratibha Patil's impending visit to Karnataka Friday, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have stepped up efforts to gather votes from legislators.
While Patil arrives Friday to garner support for the election on July 19, Congress leader M.M. Jacob landed here Wednesday evening and began meeting party MPs and legislators to ensure that all turn up on D-day to vote for her.
Jacob, who has recently been appointed to take charge of the party in Karnataka, is here on a three-day visit and there is speculation that he may seek the support of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), even though it is running a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
The BJP is supporting vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the presidential poll.
The JD-S, headed by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, has so far been quiet on whether it will support Patil or Shekhawat.
"Let us see," Jacob said when asked whether he would meet Deve Gowda during his stay here.
If the Congress was gathering its forces, so was the BJP, which sent its vice president Ashanti Sinha here for a day Thursday to muster support for Shekhawat.