The Hindu
Mangalore, May 20: Several leaders from the State unit of Congress arrived in Ullal on Saturday and termed the contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) in Ullal byelection as "politics of adjustments".
Pic Vasant Konaje for Daijiworld Media Network
President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Mallikarjun Kharge told presspersons here that Janata Dal (S) knew it would not win the Ullal Assembly seat, but it had fielded a candidate to divide the Muslim votes.
Despite this "aberration", Congress would consider this election as the most keenly contested, he said and added that it was Congress and BJP who were in direct contest in Ullal.
Kharge said the byelection would be a fight between the pro-development and secular ideology of Congress and the distorted politics and communal agenda of Janata Dal (S) and BJP respectively.
BJP had a hidden agenda in the byelection which was to put down secular forces, he said and added that Janata Dal (S) had succumbed to this agenda of BJP. The decision of Janata Dal (S) to field its candidate for the byelection was a move to nullify the secular forces, Kharge said.
Congress leader H.K. Patil and former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said that Janata Dal (S) was towing the fundamentalist line along with BJP.
The first phase of high-profile campaigning began in Ullal on Saturday with the State unit leaders of Congress holding a meeting at Arekala-Kadavu village.
The election meeting was addressed by Kharge who criticized BJP for its "misleading politics".
The list of speakers included several local leaders and those who had come from Bangalore.
Kharge will be camping in Mangalore till May 23 and will be holding election meeting every day in Ullal. According to sources in the party, Kharge and former president of KPCC B. Janardhana Poojary will hold a joint election meeting in Ullal on Monday.
Poojary will also do a "paadayatra" of the constituency from Thokkuttu on Monday. BJP leaders held a meeting at Thokkuttu. The party leaders and about 250 party worker took stock of the impact of the first round of the door-to-door campaigning.
According to district unit president of BJP Monappa Bhandary, the first round of door-to-door campaigning, done exclusively by the grass-roots workers, was useful in motivating the voters. This experience had given invaluable inputs to us, he told.
Earlier Report