Udaykumar Shetty, president of district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Saturday that the BJP would start a door-to-door campaign for the urban local bodies (ULBs) elections in Udupi district from Sunday.
Mr. Shetty told presspersons that the party believed that door-to-door campaigning was more effective than holding public meetings. But the party would hold conventions in Udupi, Kundapur, Karkala, and Saligrama, on February 28, in which State-level leaders of the party would participate.
He said that the BJP would not only retain the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC), Kundapur Town Municipal Council (TMC), and Saligrama Town Panchayat, but also wrest the Karkala TMC from the Congress this time. Of the 95 seats in all the ULBs of Udupi district, the BJP had won 59 seats in the last ULB elections in 2008.
The BJP had a strong base in the entire district. It controlled the zilla panchayat and all the three taluk panchayats. It also controlled all the three Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) in the district.
The BJP had delegated the responsibility of ensuring the victory of the party in the ULB polls to senior leaders in the district. Kota Srinivas Poojary,
Minister for Ports and Muzrai, would be in-charge of the ULB polls in the entire district. In addition, he would be specifically in-charge of ULB polls in Kundapur and Saligrama.
Raghupati Bhat, MLA, would be in-charge of Udupi CMC elections, and Sunil Kumar, former MLA, would oversee the BJP’s campaign for Karkala TMC, Mr. Shetty said.
T.V. Hegde, Sulochana Bhat, Shymala Kundar, Geetanjali Suvarna and Sandhya, BJP leaders, were present.
