Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (UM)
Udupi, Dec 6: Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje on Sunday December 6 expressed confidence that BJP's candidate for the upcoming polls Kota Srinivas Poojary would win the elections with a clear majority.
Addressing a press meet here at the BJP office here, Shobha said, "In Udupi district, BJP is in power in 104 gram panchayats and out of a total of 2,690 gram panchayat members, 1,475 are from BJP. In Dakshina Kannada, about 1,800 members of local committees are from BJP. Our candidate Kota Srinivas Poojary is contesting for the third time and we are confident that he will win with a clear majority.
"There is a lot of confusion in the Congress party. Their official candidate is Pratapchandra Shetty but there are four or five other aspirants too who are now contesting as rebels. It has come to my notice that they have already taken the nomination forms," she added.
"We prefer selection of MLCs as it would reduce election costs and also save much time. Nevertheless, we are also ready to contest," Shobha said.
Commenting on the Karnataka government's plans to bring about anti-superstition law, she said, "The Congress government had first mooted the anti-superstition bill in 2014, but as people opposed, it was not implemented. But now again a new committee has been formed to try and enforce the law. The government should first decide as to what falls under the categories of superstitions and beliefs. It should consider what the society has been following. There should be a public debate on it involving all communities. The government wants to enforce this law only for vote bank."
On the issue of the Upalokayukta, she alleged that chief minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet ministers have been trying to dissolve the institution of Lokayukta itself. "The CM, his cabinet and Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao are involved in it. The state government is trying to dissolve the Lokayukta institution.
"When BJP was in power Siddaramaiah had done padayatra and delivered speeches against corruption, but what he is doing now? The CM and his cabinet are scared as they are involved in corruption, so they are trying to disband the Lokayukta once and for all," she alleged.
Asked whether BJP would field another candidate in view of former MP Jayaprakash Hegde contesting as an independent candidate, BJP district president Thingale Vikramarjuna Hegde said that BJP has no such plans and would stick to only one canidate from DK-Udupi seat.
Kota Srinivas Poojary, Uday Kumar Shetty, Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, Geetanjali Suvarna, Naveen Shetty and others were present.