The Hindu : Karnataka News : They meet every voter and plead for support

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

They meet every voter and plead for support

Govind D. Belgaumkar

Brisk campaigning by Congress and BJP candidates in Sullia

Raghu asks voters to give him one chance to serve
Angara climbs a hillock to show that he is energetic

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

DIFFERENT WAYS: S.Angara (BJP) visits a house during his campaign and at right B. Raghu of the Congress checks the pulse of a woman during his campaign in Sullia.

SULLIA: The doctor in S. Raghu could hardly hide. As an old bony woman curled up in front of a small house on a hillock in Kalara, near Kadaba in Sullia constituency, complained of body pain and fever, the Congress candidate took her hand and checked the woman’s pulse.

Releasing her hand, he told the woman and her family members that she had had a fracture. He mildly admonished them for consulting a local practitioner instead of taking her to a government hospital. Dr. Raghu tells them that her bone was not set properly.

He comes out of the doctor-patient mode quickly as the politician in him takes over. “Yeth vote undu?” (How many votes are there in your family?), he asks another woman in the house. When she gives him the number, he requests that all votes should be cast in his favour.

“Last time, you have defeated me. This time you should support me. I will solve your problems,” he says. People in the house nod and he moves on. A Beary woman, wearing a bunch of traditional earrings, “alakat”, in the neighbourhood, however, refuses to merely nod to what all he says. She points out to him that her application for sanction of a toilet under a Government scheme has been pending. Dr. Raghu says he will have it done through the gram panchayat.

Although people in most households fold hands in response to a similar gesture by the politician, some call him in and make him relax for a while before sending him off. One woman in the locality says she is aware of his candidature and shows a bunch of pamphlets she has collected.

A middle-aged couple, who shoulder the responsibility of taking care of nine children, tell Dr. Raghu that their relatives had stopped visiting the family because of bad roads. Party workers accompanying Dr. Raghu allege that this was the result of electing a BJP candidate thrice in the last 15 years. They suggest it is time to change their representative. Dr. Raghu occasionally checks with people whether his opponent S. Angara of the Bharatiya Janata Party had visited them. Happy to get an answer in the negative, he pleads that he should be given a chance to serve them.

Hours before, The Hindu caught up with Mr. Angara (BJP) campaigning at Dugladka and Guttigaru villages on Sullia-Subrahmanya Road. Mr. Angara visited every shop on the main road and shook hands with everyone. “I have come to ask for your support,” he tells them in Tulu.

He tries to give an impression that he is energetic by climbing up a tiny slippery hillock to avoid a circuitous route to a neighbouring shop in Dugladka. Many of his supporters, some younger than him, did not dare keep pace with him. Mr. Angara confronts two chikungunya patients in Guttigaru. He touched the feet of a 96-year-old chikungunya patient of a family that manages and works in a local temple. The aged man tells Mr. Angara that his blessings are with him.

The Sullia constituency is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate.

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