The Congress was quick to descend on Udupi constituency, hours after the party president Sonia Gandhi deployed a few top leaders to oversee preparations in all assembly segments of the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency.
Three leaders made their first visit to their respective segments and got down to BJP bashing immediately.
Union minister of corporate affairs Veerappa Moily and former Rajya Sabha MP Janardhana Poojary were the first to arrive in Karkala and Mudigere, respectively, while KH Muniyappa, SM Krishna, DK Shivakumar, Motamma, Mallikarjuna Kharge and others are expected to report in their respective segments in a day or two.
Speaking on the sidelines of a party meeting in Udupi, Moily said: “The BJP is flush with ill-gotten money from pillaging natural resources of the state. I’m sure this money will be flowing to buy votes. But I’ve full confidence in the voters of Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency. "
Moiley added, "They will not only foil such advances of the BJP, but also defeat it in the elections. I’ve also warned my workers to keep their eyes and ears open against efforts to corrupt the electorate and report it to the election commission.”
“We’ll take all scams and misdeeds of the BJP leaders in the last three years to every voter in the constituency right from the Haratal Halappa episode to porngate,” he said.
The coastal segments of the Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency connect well with Congress candidate K Jayaprakash Hegde, as he has been a two-time minister and is known among the Mogaveeras (fishermen), Billavas (toddy-tappers) and Bunts (landlords and farmers).
He has also established contacts with the large minority population in Kaup, Udupi, Kundapur and Karkala. This factor gives him an edge over the BJP candidate Sunil Kumar.
“Udupi Lok Sabha was better off before the delimitation. It is a coastal town and was homogenous. All MPs of the past — Ullal Srinivas Mallya (1957 and 1962) JML Prabhu (1967), Ranganath Shenoy (1971), TA Pai (1977), and Oscar Fernandes ( 1980, 84,89, 91 and 96) from Congress, IM Jayaram Shetty (1998- BJP) Vinaya
Kumar Sorake (1999 -Congress) Manorama Madhwaraj (2004 BJP) and DV Sadananda Gowda (2009) — were
from the coastal districts of either Dakshina Kannada or Udupi.
I won’t be surprised if Jayaprakash Hegde stands a fair chance in this election depending on his coastal antecedents,” said Mahabala Kundar, a political observer.
Sunil Kumar is known in ghat areas and the BJP workers in the coast feel that he is politically immature and good only for state politics.
Krishnananda Pai of Karkala, a staunch BJP follower, said: “He should have been given more time to work locally. He lost a good chance to prove himself when he was a MLA for one term from Karkala.
He added, "But he concentrated more on non-issues like Datta Peeta in Chikmagalur,while there were many local issues including drinking water, civic facilities, employment generation, roads and overall development of Karkala town.”
Political observers feel that in addition to the drawbacks of the BJP candidate, the party faces bad publicity due to scams, scandals and instability in the party ranks.
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