MANGALURU: The BJP, which is leaving no stone unturned to garner votes in Kerala, has deployed more than three dozen party leaders from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts in Karnataka to look after the management of its election campaign. The leaders, who include sitting and former legislators, will focus on 38 Assembly constituencies, mostly in the Kerala coast, where the party hopes to do well.
Party spokesperson in Karnataka, Capt. Ganesh Karnik, who has been given the responsibility of Konni Assembly constituency in Pathanamthitta district, from where Kerala state BJP president K Surendran is likely to contest, said the party leaders from the coastal districts have been chosen for the job because
they have better connect with coastal Kerala.
Karnik, who is on a two-day break from his poll duties, said their task is not to supervise or monitor, but includes poll management like working with the party cadres there in activities related to booths, door-to-door visits, talking to smaller groups and trying to help them reach out to voters. The leaders were handpicked for constituencies where they need to work, following an analysis by the party.
Party MLAs Vedavyas Kamath from Mangaluru City (South) and U Rajesh Naik from Bantwal flew to Kerala on Friday and are expected to return for the ongoing Karnataka legislature session. Kamath, who is helping out the party cadres in Thrissur, said almost all legislators from the three districts have been assigned poll duty and hoped to do well by making use of the strategies that have worked for the party in the Karnataka coast.
Dakshina Kannada district unit BJP president M Sudarshan said party leaders and workers who can converse in English or Malayalam have been given the responsibility in constituencies beyond Kannur while others will mainly work in Kasaragod district. Surdarshan said many more leaders from the state are likely to join the campaign job in Kerala during the last 10 days of public campaign if the elections to Zilla and Taluk panchayats in Karnataka are not announced by then. Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar is in-charge of party affairs in Kerala.
KHARGE, HARIPRASAD AMONG CONGRESS’ STAR CAMPAIGNERS
Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader and MLC BK Hariprasad from Karnataka are among the Congress’ star campaigners who will be garnering votes for the party candidates during the first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal on March 27. AICC on Friday submitted a list of 30 campaigners, including Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ashok Gehlot, BK Hariprasad and others to the Election Commission. “I will be going to West Bengal to campaign after March 15 and we will give a good fight in the polls,” Hariprasad told TNIE.