Udupi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has re-nominated Shobha Karandlaje for the Udupi–Chikkamagaluru parliamentary seat, while the Janata Dal (Secular) has finally given ticket to Congress leader and former Minister Pramod Madhwaraj as a “coalition candidate”.
Though Ms. Karandlaje was considered as a frontrunner to contest for the seat, there was some suspense as the names of two other party leaders were also doing the rounds. In the case of the JD(S)–Congress coalition, the selection was more complicated as the Congress is stronger in the constituency than the JD(S), though the latter was given the seat under the seat-sharing arrangement.
This is best illustrated by the results of the 2014 parliamentary election results. Ms. Karandlaje had won the Udupi–Chikkamagaluru seat in 2014 by a margin of 1.81 lakh by defeating the then Congress candidate K. Jayaprakash Hegde, who is now with the BJP. Late V. Dhananjaya Kumar, as the JD(S) candidate, had got only 14,895 votes.
M. Ratnakar Hegde, president of the district unit of the BJP, said Ms. Karandlaje would be re-elected from the constituency by over 2.8 lakh votes. “People in all the 28 constituency in Karnataka will vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi than the candidates. There is a Modi wave in the State. The work done by the Modi government will help us,” he said.
“Besides how much will Congress workers accept Mr. Madhwaraj as a JD(S) candidate? It is a walkover for us,” he added.
‘Will meet leaders’
Meanwhile, S.L. Bhoje Gowda, MLC and senior JD(S) leader, told The Hindu that the party had given the ‘B’ form to Mr. Madhwaraj for the seat. “Both the Congress and the JD(S) are fighting as coalition partners in the State and Mr. Madhwaraj is a ‘coalition candidate’,” he said.
Mr. Bhoje Gowda said there would be some rumblings among some workers and leaders in both the parties. “But we will meet both the leaders and workers, and convince them of the need for giving ticket to Mr. Madhwaraj. We will iron out the small differences and work to win the seat,” he said.
“Ms. Karandlaje is unpopular among party workers and constituents because of her inaccessibility and rare visits to the constituency. This will also help us,” he said.