By Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Mar 3: With the election just a few months away, all eyes are on the Dakshina Kannada district to see whether the probable candidate from Congress or BJP will retain their seat in Dakshina Kannada or whether Congress will gain the upper hand in seven constituencies.

The Mangaluru South constituency always sees an intense fight during the elections as every leader eyes a ticket from the constituency.

Since 1972, the Mangaluru constituency has been reserved for the Christian quota as Congress has given tickets to the specific community, including Eddie Saldanha, P F Rodrigues, Blasius D'Souza, Lancelot Pinto, Ivan D'Souza, and J R Lobo, with Eddie Saldanha becoming the first female MLA of Mangaluru in 1972.

In the 2023 elections, J R Lobo, Ivan D'Souza, Shalet Pinto, and Naveen D'Souza are on the probable list to contest from the Mangaluru South constituency, while Shashidhar Hegde and Padmaraj are also aspirants who have applied for the 2023 elections.

BJP’s Yogesh Bhat holds the record of being a four-term MLA in the Mangaluru South Constituency from 1994-2013. In 2013, Yogesh Bhat could not get past Congress candidate J R Lobo, who defeated him by a margin of 12,275 votes.

As an MLA, J R Lobo has always been a people’s leader with a progressive mindset. Mangaluru South is a place where there is a lot of scope for development. During his tenure, several development works were undertaken, and he had a strong vision for the overall development of Mangaluru.

Despite being at the forefront of development works, the controversy over the Mulky Sundaram Shetty road was a huge setback for Lobo and Congress in Mangaluru South.

After Yogesh Bhat’s defeat against JR Lobo, there was a huge question for BJP to field their candidate in the 2018 elections. Except for the 2013 election, since 1994, Mangaluru South was BJP’s stronghold. BJP had to go back to their drawing board to see what went wrong in the 2013 elections so that they could come back strongly in the 2018 elections.

BJP was facing the 2018 elections as a matter of pride and honor to get back the Mangaluru constituency from Congress. BJP had faith in Vedavyas Kamath, who served as the general secretary of BJP Mangaluru South unit, and named him as the contestant for the 2018 polls against JR Lobo. It seems that BJP had done their homework well as Vedavyas Kamath managed to get past JR Lobo with a huge margin of more than 16,000 votes and ensured BJP’s existence in Mangaluru South.

In his maiden tenure, Vedavyas Kamath has gained the confidence of the public with his approach and is confident to head into the 2023 elections. Vedavyas Kamath is known for his teamwork and ability to bring everyone together. In his tenure, Vedavyas has been involved in calm politics while raising several issues in the session pertaining to the development of Mangaluru.

This time around, it will be a tough challenge for Congress to field the right candidate in Mangaluru South to face Vedavyas Kamath.

Results in 2018
Vedavyas Kamath – 86,545
J R Lobo – 70,470

Results in 2013
J R Lobo – 67,829
Yogesh Bhat – 55,554

Total elections – 15
Congress – 9 (1952, 57, 62, 67, 72, 78, 85, 89, 2013)
BJP – 6 (1983, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2018)