KASARAGOD: An election campaign jeep decked with a green billboard and banners trundles along the pothole-riddled national highway at Hosangadi in Manjeshwar. From a distant, it appears the vehicle belongs to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the dominant party in the assembly constituency. Closing in on the jeep is not easy as the potholes ensure the speedometer does not cross 20. On either side of the highway, one can see a continuous sea of garbage littered along.
After the bumpy ride, the election jeep is near, and the candidate’s image is clear. Billboard calls on the public to vote for LDF candidate M Shankar Rai. The red gets a green makeover in Manjeshwar.
The candidate is not too far away. He is going around from shop to shop seeking votes in Manjeshwar on the National Highway. He does not break a sweat although the noon sun is beating down hard.
“I’m used to this sun. Not AC cars,” he says.
Rai, a retired school headmaster, wears his son-of-soil image on his sleeves. “The biggest issue in Manjeshwar is the people do not get to know what the government is doing for them. Mainly because the communications and the orders are in Malayalam,” says Rai.Even the forms to avail themselves of government benefits are in Malayalam. “People bring the forms to me to fill them. If I am elected, I will ensure that government orders and forms reach Manjeshwar and Kasaragod in Kannada,” he says.
The government should also stop posting teachers who did not know Kannada in Kannada medium schools, he said.
In the background, the pre-recorded announcement from the jeep urges people to vote for Rai. The announcement is in Kannada, Urdu, Tulu, Marathi and perhaps Malayalam, too.
Ten kilometre from the highway towards the east is Machampady, a picturesque village dotted by grazing cows on green meadows. BJP’s candidate Ravisha Tantri Kuntar just attended a neighbourhood meeting at a ‘tharavad’ in front of the Vanjalaya temple. The residents are all Tulu speakers from the Gatty caste. “Only this year, we are hearing announcements in Tulu during elections,” said Shreyas Gatty, a commerce student in Mangaluru.
The residents of the colony were happy because just two weeks ago they got a bus service connecting Machampady to Manjeshwar and Thoudugoli -- both 10 km apart. “Our children had to walk to school or depend on autorickshaws which fleeced us,” said Sunitha Gatty. Close to their colony is the Machampady Juma Masjid. And on the same compound is a Theyyam Tharavad ‘Kshetram’.
“We participate in each other festival. During their Urs festival, we make the arch at the entrance of the mosque,” says Shreyas. “Likewise, they also take part in our theyyam festival,” he says. Most of the Tulu speakers here are BJP supporters. Driving further into the hinterland, we spot Ravisha Tantri in Cheral in Paivalige panchayat. It is a Kannada heartland, all the boards and signages are in Kannada. Tantri delivers his speech in his mother tongue. “Ernakulam was a small town 60 years ago. Today, it is a big city. In the past 60 years, nothing has changed in Manjeshwar,” he says.
“The constituency is lagging in health care and education,” he says. Among the crowd was Prasad Rai, a member of Manjeshwar block panchayat. “We don’t have high demands. The taluk hospital in Uppala has no doctor after 5pm. We need a hospital which has doctors round the clock,” he says.
There is a severe shortage of staff in government offices. “And those who are here are from other districts and do not know Kannada,” he says.
“Here, people live in peace. Only during elections, the politicians highlight the differences among us,” he says
Unlike the local BJP leaders, BJP’s state president of Karnataka Nalin Kumar Kateel while speaking at an election rally said Manjeshwar would become another Jammu and Kashmir if the IUML won again.
That statement was good fodder for Eriyal Muhammed Kunji, a local leader of the IUML. He made it the main issue during his speech at Uppala Gate, till the arrival of candidate M C Kamaruddin. “The voters should give a fitting reply to those trying to spread hate, divisiveness, and communalism in the secular land of Manjeshwar,” Kunji thundered into his microphone.
IUML has always stood for the unity and integrity of the country, he says. “I have just one this to say to the Sangh Parivar who is so eager to pack those to disagree with them to Pakistan: “This land belongs to us too. We were born here and will die here,” he says.
Kamaruddin, who is also the district president of IUML, arrives two hours late in an open jeep. Development is the biggest issue in Manjeshwar. Officials posted here pull the strings and get transferred out. That is another challenge we face,” says the candidate.Poll songs composed by IUML’s WhatsApp group play in the background.
The IUML’s confidence in Manjeshwar stems from the fact that 52% of the voters are religious minorities, which include 3% Konkani Christians. “Here people do not vote for IUML. Here we vote just to keep the BJP out,” says K Y Mohammed, 60, a butcher and resident of Panchalampara. He says he did not have any issue with the BJP if they did not create trouble after winning. “But look at Karnataka. The cattle for slaughtering cannot come from next door Mangaluru. It has come from Tamil Nadu,” he says. “Things were not like this before 1984,” he says.But unlike other elections, no party makes any tall promise or has taken up civic issues.