With three days remaining for filing nomination papers for the Assembly elections to be on May 12, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released the names of its candidates for Mangaluru City South, Mangaluru City North and Mangaluru constituencies putting an end to all speculations.
It has fielded Vedavyasa Kamath from Mangaluru City South, Y. Bharath Shetty from Mangaluru City North and Santosh Kumar Rai from Mangaluru. All the three candidates are now presidents of the respective Assembly constituency units of the party. Mr. Rai was also a former member of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat. The candidates are facing elections for the first time. The party has already announced candidates for the other five constituencies in the district.
Mr. Kamath will take on J.R. Lobo, Congress MLA from Mangaluru City South, Mr. Shetty will face B.A. Mohiuddin Bava, Congress MLA from Mangaluru City North, and Mr. Rai will fight U.T. Khader, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Congress MLA from Mangaluru.
On the other hand, Srikara Prabhu, former president of Mangaluru City South unit of the BJP, who was expelled from the party for six years in May 2014, has announced that he would contest as an Independent from Mangaluru City South on the Hindutva plank. Mr. Prabhu was also State executive committee member of the BJP.
In a recent public meeting in the city Mr. Prabhu went on record to say that the BJP has failed to explain to him the specific reason for expelling him from the party. The letter of expulsion issued by the party has also not mentioned the reason. He would contest the election with the same issues which the BJP was projecting as he wanted an explanation from the BJP for expelling him. Meanwhile, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha said on Friday that it would field its candidates Dharmender from Mangaluru City South and Suresh B. Saliyan from Mangaluru City North. Addressing reporters, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha State president Subrahmanya Raju said that the Election Commission has listed the Mahasabha under “registered but not recognised” category. It was yet to get a symbol from the Commission to contest. The Mahasabha would contest 30 seats in the State. Soon a Saffron Front would be formed in the State comprising five organisations — Sri Rama Sene, Sampoorna Bharatiya Kranti Paksha, Sanatana Hindu Jana Jagruti Samithi, Shiv Sena and Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. The front would come into existence next week ahead of the elections, he said.
