Mangalore, April 14, 2013
Putting an end to all speculations about the intense fight and lobbying for Congress ticket in Mangalore North constituency it is once again Moideen Bava who emerged victorious in a stiff fight. He beat two other strong contenders from the party Vijay Kumar Shetty and Kripa Alva, to emerge victorious. With this the race in Mangalore North is going to be a repeat of 2009 where Moideen Bava had faced BJP’s Krishna Palemar and lost. Bava getting the ticket has come as a big surprise because it was believed that Vijay Kumar Shetty’s name was almost finalized till recently. It is said that Bava and his supporters resorted to blackmail saying the Muslim votes would go against the party in case Bava was denied the ticket and this tactic worked in his favor.
Choosing candidate for Mangalore North constituency was proving to be a big headache for the Congress because of intense lobbying by the three major contenders. It may be recalled that ugly scenes were witnessed at the Mangalore International airport a few days ago by the supporters of Modieen and Vijay Kumar Shetty during the visit of AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes. It is well known that there was intense lobbying by all the three contenders who were almost camping in Delhi for the ticket.
With the ticket going to Bava, the party has poured cold water on women aspirants for ticket after giving a ray of hope that it is serious about giving chance to women candidates. With Bava clinching the ticket 4 out of the eight seats in Dakshina Kannada seats have gone to the minorities. Congress had given 4 seats to minorities in 2008 elections also and many believed that this strategy was largely responsible for alienating the Hindus in a big way. It was therefore expected that the Congress might change this strategy but it did not. U T Khader (Mulsim) is the party’s candidate from Mangalore (Ullal) J R Lobo (Christian) from Mangalore South, Moideen Bava (Muslim) Mangalore North and Abhaychandra Jain (Jain) from Moodbidri.
Though Bava has succeeded in getting the ticket chances of Krishna Kumar Palemar winning are bright because Palemar has good rapport with Muslims and he is sure to get a sizeable chunk of their votes. The general feeling is that Vijay Kumar Shetty would have been a better candidate in Mangalore North as compared to Bava.
Sources say that supporters of Vijay Kumar Shetty have decided to observe Chitrapur Bandh in protest against denying ticket to him. Bundh or no bundh it may not make much of a difference now.
