A day after the announcement of the results of the urban local body elections, the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party District unit here was bustling with brainstorming while there was little or no activity at the local Congress office.
BJP workers, including the winning and loosing candidates, attended the brainstorming at the BJP headquarters near PVS Circle. Padmanabha Kottari, district unit president of the party, Deputy Speaker N. Yogish Bhat, and MLC Monappa Bhandary attended the meeting. Pratap Simha, district unit in-charge of the party, presided over the meeting, which dwelled, among other issues, on the reasons for losing its sway over Mangalore City Corporation.
“We need to go back to our voters and regain their trust. Regardless of the loss, we need to continue work for people in the next five years. We need to be an effective Opposition party in the council,” said a party worker.
Issues like the disconnect of certain councillors with their wards came up for discussion. The meeting also debated how rebel BJP candidates dented party’s prospects in six wards. “We could weather the threat of rebel candidates in only two wards,” said Mr. Bhat.
The meeting also acknowledged some positives from the results including the performance of Sudhir Shetty. “He has won from a ward dominated by Muslims. This was possible because he was in constant touch with his electorate apart from the development work he carried out in the ward,” said Mr. Bhandary.
The District Congress Committee office at Hampankatta was a picture in contrast as there was hardly anyone at the office around noon. In the evening District Youth Congress president Mithun Rai sought to use the media as a platform to thank voters for returning party to power in the corporation.
