Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Apr 8: The extent to which Assembly election scheduled next month in Karnataka has hotted up the tempo can be gauged by the fact that Congress MLA representing the city (north) constituency here, Mohiuddin Bava, has been busy carrying out campaigning for votes even in the Gulf countries.

Thousands of people from coastal Karnataka have been employed in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and other countries. A large number of them visit their native places during the Assembly election to exercise their franchise. Bava, who is aware of this, visited Jeddah in Saudi Arabia two days back in the guise of undertaking pilgrimage to Mecca, and campaigned for votes.

Jeddah, second most populous city in Saudi Arabia, is located near the area where holy pilgrimage centres, Mecca and Madina, are situated. People from coastal area of Karnataka living in Jeddah organized an electioneering meeting for Congress, and extended grand reception to Bava. Thousands of people holding Congress party's flags and wearing customary caps, were seen raising slogans hailing Bava and Congress party. Video of this programme is making rounds in social media.

A couple of months back, an audio clip in which return air tickets were offered to people of Karnataka working in the Gulf coming to their native place to vote for Bava had been circulated. With the arrangement for a huge gathering having been made for Bava in the Gulf, the suspcion that air tickets would also have been arranged for voters, is gaining credence. Reportedly, over 4,000 voters from the city (north) constituency are living in the Gulf countries.

At the video of the said progamme, Mohiuddin Bava can be heard saying that he is committed to address the problems the people from Karnataka coast living in the Gulf region might be facing. This assurance, one assumes, goes to prove that the election heat this time has transcended boundaries of the country.