The Hindu : Tough fight likely between Congress, BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Tough fight likely between Congress, BJP

By Our Staff Correspondent

UDUPI, FEB. 21. The Udupi Lok Sabha constituency is a stronghold of the Congress.

The constituency comprises eight Assembly segments, five of which are in Udupi district and three in Dakshina Kannada district. The five Assembly segments in Udupi are Byndoor, Kundapur, Brahmavar, Udupi, and Kaup. The three Assembly segments in Dakshina Kannada district are Bantwal, Mulki-Moodabidri, and Surathkal. The Karkala Assembly segment in Udupi district is part of the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency.

An interesting feature of the constituency is that women outnumber men. According to the tentative figures made available by the district administration, 5,92,719 women and 5,48,873 men (the total number of voters is 11,41,592) are eligible to exercise franchise in the constituency.

The constituency elected the Congress candidate, U. Srinivas Mallya, in the elections in 1952, 1957, and 1962. It sent to the Lok Sabha Lobo Prabhu (Swatantra Party) in 1967, Ranganath Shenoy (Congress) in 1971, and T.A. Pai (Congress) in 1977. Oscar Fernandes (Congress) won five times from Udupi — in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, and 1996.

I.M. Jayaram Shetty of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected to represent the Udupi Lok Sabha constituency in 1998. Vinaykumar Sorake (Congress) defeated Mr. Shetty in the 1999 elections by a margin of over 31,000 votes. The Congress led in six of the eight Assembly segments in the constituency. Even after the 1999 elections, the Congress has done well in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.

The party made a clean sweep of all the seats in zilla panchayat elections in Udupi and put up an impressive show in Dakshina Kannada.

According to sources in the Congress, Mr. Sorake is almost certain to be re-nominated by the party. He is a non-controversial person with a clean image. Besides, he belongs to the Billava community, which is in a majority in the constituency.

There are three contenders for the BJP ticket — the former Minister, Manorama Madhwaraj, the Secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha, Udaykumar Shetty, and the former President of district unit of the BJP, A.G. Kodgi. According to sources in the party, Ms. Madhwaraj is likely to get the ticket. Ms. Madhwaraj, who was a member of the Congress for three decades, joined the BJP recently. She also has a good image. The BJP feels that she will attract voters from the Mogaveera community in large numbers.

`NDA candidate'

The President of State unit of the Janata Dal (United), I.M. Jayaram Shetty, has said that he will contest from the Udupi Lok Sabha constituency as a "candidate of the National Democratic Alliance" even if the BJP fields Ms. Madhwaraj. Mr. Shetty left the BJP after his defeat in the last election and joined the Samata Party as its State unit President.

The Samata Party recently merged with the Janata Dal (U). However, the BJP has made it clear that no "NDA candidate'' is to be fielded from Udupi and it will contest from the constituency.

The BJP and the Congress are working out various caste permutations and combinations. The Bunts constitute the second largest community in the constituency.

The minority communities are likely to support the Congress, and a tough fight between the Congress and the BJP is expected.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section

Krishna sees development despite severe drought

Anti-terrorist force set up

Krishna sees progress despite drought

Tough fight likely between Congress, BJP

Police officers shed khaki for khadi

No such thing as caretaker government, says Krishna

All irrigation pumpsets to be metered after polls

Sharief keen to contest for Assembly?

Women told to seek more seats in Parliament

Ananth Kumar defends role in HUDCO affairs

He wants people's crown

Swamy may meet Bommai today

Briefly