Karwar: There is no enthusiasm among Congress workers after the party high command left the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha seat to its alliance partner JD(S). No activities are visible in the Congress camp after the announcement of the seat sharing agreement was made on Thursday. If it continues, it may be a walkover for the BJP, according to observers.

In fact, Congress workers have been staging protests urging the high command to review its decision. Their contention is that the JD(S) has no base in the constituency. They have pointed out that the party’s performance in the 2018 state assembly election was poor as it received just over 1 lakh votes against 4 lakh of the Congress.

It is learnt that senior minister R V Deshpande, Yallapur MLA Shivaram Hebbar and other Congress leaders in the district are not happy with the decision of the high command. Deshpande, while expressing his disappointment on social media, requested the leadership to rethink on the decision.

Shambhu Shetty, a Congress leader from Karwar, said they are waiting for a “final decision”. Deshpande and others from the district are in Bengaluru to meet Congress leaders Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara and Dinesh Gundurao and JD(S) top brass H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy to explain them the ground reality. If the parties decide to swap the constituency with another, it will be good, local leaders said.

Even JD(S), which does not have workers in many taluks, has not yet started campaigning in the district.

Union minister Anantkumar Hegde has been campaigning with the slogan, ‘It will be Congress-free Uttara Kannada’. The BJP’s social media wing has been actively making use of the situation and is engaging in trolling the Congress and its leaders