MANGALURU: Desperate times call for desperate measures and no one seems to be more desperate than the Congress in Dakshina Kannada these days going by its election campaign strategy.In order to win back the seat — which has remained elusive for the Grand Old Party since the last 28 years — the Congress appears to be toeing the soft Hindutva line in the region unlike in other constituencies.
Slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, saffron shawls, publicity material in saffron hues and some with quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, hitherto seen in political campaigns of saffron parties, have become part of the Congress election paraphernalia in the district.The party’s campaign getting a saffron touch drew special attention at rallies and roadshows held in Belthangady and Puttur on Monday, where Major and Medium Irrigation Minister DK Shivakumar was the star attraction. Party candidate Mithun Rai had slung on a saffron shawl while ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans rent the air.
A District Congress Committee functionary said the change in the party’s campaign strategy was made consciously and is intended to attract Hindutva voters or fence-sitters who are miffed with sitting MP and
BJP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel.Even the minorities were said to have been taken on board before projecting Mithun as someone who is no less a Hindu than his BJP rival. Social media is fed with posts highlighting Mithun’s generous contributions to goshalas, doing godhanas, his wrist full of sacred threads, visits to temples and religious leaders and so on, in order to win over Hindu voters.
Sources said the party feels that it is inevitable now to play to the gallery, in a highly polarised constituency like Dakshina Kannada, in order to match the strategies of its political rival. “The strategy seems to be paying off, going by the response to our election rally in Belthangady and Puttur. This will continue,” a party source said.However, sources said the party will restrict the saffron spectacle to only places that have a high concentration of Hindu voters and not everywhere. Also, posts which claim that RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat has extended his support to Mithun have gone viral, prompting Bhat to lodge a complaint with the police in Bantwal on Monday.
Meanwhile, Political scientist Prof Rajaram Tholpadi thinks that such a strategy will not work, particularly in Dakshina Kannada, as people know the distinction between Congress and BJP. “They would go for proper Hindutva ideology rather than the one which is wavering, undefined and ambiguous.” he said. Further, he said more than Hindutva, “what matters the most in this election is nationalism, protection of borders and the country’s safety, which is represented by Modi”.