SDPI targets Congress seats with large minority base

BENGALURU:  The Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is eyeing assembly constituencies that are represented by Congress and have a large minority population. The party has selectively attacked Congress MLAs that it considers weak. MLA Tanvir Sait, representing the Narasimharaja constituency in Mysuru, and Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Sreenivas Murthy are the latest in its list. 

Congress sources said, “In the previous assembly election, almost all the Muslim votes, nearly 50 lakh, were garnered by the Congress, while the JDS and BJP got only a minuscule share. This explains why JDS candidate Tanveer Ahmed got only around a thousand votes in Muslim-majority Shivajinagar.’’ On Congress candidate R V Devaraj losing in Chickpet by a small margin of 8,000 votes and SDPI taking away 11,700 votes, the Congress source said that these “spoiler” votes could have gone to the Congress.

Also, in the parliamentary election, SDPI got close to 46,800 votes in Mangaluru where Congress candidate Mithun Rai lost to BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. Congress insiders said SDPI has won seats in different corporation elections that were essentially Congress strongholds.