MANGALURU: With BJP and Congress rebels refusing to withdraw their nomination papers, the Council polls for South West Graduates and South West Teachers constituencies are headed for an interesting triangular contest.
In South West Teachers seat, where incumbent MLC SL Bhoje Gowda is the NDA candidate, Satish Acharya, a BJP rebel, is giving the former a run for his money. SP Dinesh, who was denied the Congress ticket, is contesting an as independent here, against the party’s official candidate, KK Manjunath Kumar.
In South West Graduates constituency where BJP has fielded Dr Dhananjaya Sarji, three-time BJP MLA K Raghupathi Bhat is in the fray as a BJP rebel. Congress has fielded incumbent MLC Ayanur Manjunath, who was elected on a BJP ticket last time.
While the BJP is facing rebel trouble in both constituencies, the Congress is facing it in the Graduates constituency, but the rebellion appears to have hit the BJP hard, as loyal party workers are said to be upset with the party leadership over the candidate selection.
While the BJP had no option but to sacrifice the SW Teachers constituency seat to JDS as that party has a sitting MLC, many in the saffron party feel that at least the SW Graduates constituency ticket should have gone to a loyal party worker. Sarji, a Lingayat, despite being new to the party, reportedly managed to get the ticket because of the blessings of Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa.
The neglect of loyal party workers has led to heartburn among a large section of BJP leaders and workers, especially in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, which is the party’s stronghold. A party functionary who did want to be named, said discontent had started brewing in the party when Nalin Kumar Kateel was replaced by Capt. Brijesh Chowta as the Lok Sabha candidate, and the situation just got worse. “Developments in the past few months indicate that the party has taken BJP leaders in DK and Udupi for granted. We prove them will wrong now,” said the leader.
Both the BJP rebels -- Bhat and Acharya, who hail from the coast -- claim they have the support of a majority of BJP leaders and workers across the constituency, that is spread over six districts. Bhat has adopted KS Eshwarappa’s strategy of displaying the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders in his publicity material. Acharya has adopted a different strategy and is not projecting himself as a BJP rebel, apparently to attract non-BJP votes too.