Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Feb 6: On Friday February 5, a flurry of activities were witnessed in the camps of all the parties as far as coming zilla and taluk panchayat elections are concerned. As Friday happened to be an auspicious day as per the Hindu calendar, most parties and even independents made a beeline to the electoral offices to file nominations. As a result, a total of 396 nominations were filed in the twin-districts on Friday. Monday happens to be the last day for filing of nominations.

Congress surprised the poll observers by bringing out the list of all its 36 candidates in Dakshina Kannada district and 21 out of 26 in Udupi. BJP also came out with its official list of candidates for Dakshina Kannada on Friday.

BJP is facing a revolt in Sullia, Puttur and Kundapur taluks. After the Vokkaliga community expressed anger for not issuing any ticket to its community in Puttur taluk, Dhananjay Gowda, Hindu Jagran Vedike leader and BJP Kutruppady unit vice president, filed nominations by revolting against BJP leadership. BJP has also been grappling with revolt in three taluk panchayat constituencies in Sullia. District BJP secretary, Sanjeev Matandoor, is confident of convincing Dhananjay to withdraw his nomination from Nelyady, where sitting ZP member, Balakrishna Banajal, has been fielded by BJP.

The situation in Kundapur is volatile. While independent MLA, Haladi Srinivas Shetty, claims that four out of five candidates fighting the Zilla Panchayat polls from here under the banner of BJP are his candidates, Kota Srinivas Poojary faction says that four of the candidates are Poojary's followers. BJP president from Kundapur, Rajesh Kaveri, says that everything will be clear in a couple of days.

BJP supporters have also filed papers as rebel candidates in Jalsoor, Panja and Bellare taluk panchayat constituencies in Sullia taluk.