Mangalore, May 30, 2013:
By C D Souza
Buoyed by two back to back victories in Dakshina Kannada this year in the ULB elections followed by winning seven out of the eight assembly seats, the Congress in Dakshina Kannada is eyeing Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency as its next target to achieve a hat trick.
Congressmen are waiting for Janardhana Poojary to bring back the glorious days when the party had ruled the roost in Dakshina Kannada winning eight times continuously from 1957 to 1989.
But then it was continuous downslide for the Congress which had lost the seat six times from 1991 to 2009 when V Dhananjay Kumar put an end to the winning streak of Poojary for the first time in 1991. Janardhana Poojary who had won the parliamentary seat four times and was even the minister at the centre had lost three times in a row from 1991 and it was generally believed that it was the end of the political career of Janardhana Poojary. But Poojary is a known fighter who always takes defeat in his strides and keeps fighting.
It is five years of BJP’s misrule, corruption, infighting and scandals that have opened hey days for the Congress once again that too in Dakshina Kannada, which is the citadel of the RSS-BJP combine.
There are enough indications that Poojary is trying to test his luck as a parliamentary candidate from Dakshina Kannada and this time the chances of his emergency successful are bright. Poojary is quite ubiquitous these days, regularly addressing press conferences or issuing press statements on various issues which indicate that he is getting ready to face the next battle.
His stern warning to new chief minister recently not to bring the famous Sri Krishna temple under the Muzrai department is viewed as an effort to win over the Hindu votes. Poojary it may be recalled, is not known for his pro-Hindu views so much so, people have often chided him as not being a born Hindu. His statement that the Congress should pay more attention to fulfilling the basic needs is also viewed in the light of this backdrop.
District Congress is in a buoyant mood as the recent assembly election results has given the party an overall lead of nearly 88,000 votes over its rival the BJP in the eight assembly segments coming under the Lok Sabha seat.
Though the Congress had expected to win at least five seats in Dakshina Kannada winning seven out of eight seats was a bonanza, which was a surprise even to the Congress. In the last elections both the Congress and BJP shared an equal number of seats winning four seats each.
The credit for the recent performance of the Congress in Dakshina Kannada certainly goes to Janardhana Poojary who played a stellar role in keeping his flock together to wage a all out fight against the BJP and succeeded in it. It is therefore, expected that he might be party candidate for the next Lok Sabha elections from Dakshina Kannada.
For the BJP there have been enough warning bells from the coastal belt beginning with the loss of the Udupi-Chickmagalur Lok Sabha constituency in the by polls held in 2012 following MP D V Sadananda Gowda vacating his seat after his elevation as Chief Minister.
Jayaprakash Hegde who had earlier lost to Gowda managed to wrest the constituency from the BJP defeating its candidate Sunil Kumar. The downslide which began from here culminated with the humiliating defeat of the BJP in the recently held assembly elections.
The Congress is now riding high both in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi and it wants to keep up the tempo of its win. In that case it will be a hat trick for the Congress
