Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)

Mangaluru, Dec 24: Health minister U T Khader on Thursday December 24 expressed confidence that Congress candidate Pratapchandra Shetty would get the maximum number of first priority votes in the upcoming MLC polls.

Addressing media persons at Eden Club here, Khader said, "In his 40 years of political life, Pratapchandra Shetty has managed to maintain a clean image with not a single blemish. Due to his clean image, the senior leaders in the party gave him another chance to contest in the elections.

"Pratapchandra has visited the panchayats in the previous term and is an active leader of the party. He gave a new vision to the panchayat members in his previous terms. I was there during one of his visits to a panchayat," he said, denying allegations from certain quarters that Pratapchandra had not visited any panchayats during his tenure.

Asked why the party was not able to win over the independent candidates Jayaprakash Hegde and Harikrishna Bantwal who were expelled, he said, "Patience is the key if one has to excel in the party. My father (the late U T Fareed) is the best example of this. After he won by a margin of 20,000 votes in the 1970s, he was denied the ticket for the next term. After 16 years he was given the ticket due to his sincere hard work."

Ayush Conference

The minister said that in association with the union government and Vivekananda Vyasa Institute the state health department will organize an international conference in Bengaluru from January 3 to January 7 and delegates from various universities of the world participate. "This will be a historic conference wherein emphasis would be laid on various traditional systems of medicine of our country. The conference will be held in association with SDM College of Naturopathy & Yogic Sciences," he said.

Khader also conveyed Eid Milad and Christmas wishes to all.