10 in Congress vying for ticket in Dakshina Kannada

Mangaluru: About 10 Congress leaders are vying for the party ticket for forthcoming election to the Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada local authorities’ constituency. Of the two seats in DK local authorities’ constituency, Congress and BJP hold one seat each (Pratapchandra Shetty of Congress and Kota Srinivas Poojary of BJP).

Sources in Congress revealed that the party would concentrate on only one seat as it does not have strength in local authorities to win two seats. The party plans to claim one seat, leaving the other to BJP, like it did in 2009. Mr Shetty, who represented Kundapur in the Legislative Assembly for four successive terms (1983-1994), has been a member of upper House since 2003.

“There are 10 contenders including Mr Shetty, former MP Jayaprakash Hegde and former Karkala MLA Gopal Bhandary. Mr Shetty is a strong contender and has a clean image. But there are allegations that he concentrated only on Udupi district and not DK,” said a Congress leader adding, “Jayaprakash Hegde is another strong contender with a good image. But minister Vinay Kumar Sorake is said to be trying to stop Hegde’s march. Mr Sorake and Mr Hegde are not in good terms after the latter got MP ticket for Udupi in 2012. Mr Sorake is trying to field his man instead of Mr Hegde.”

Mr MA Gafur, a confidant of Mr Oscar Fernandes, is the other contender. “Though Gafur is a strong contender and a senior leader, fielding him may be difficult as Congress has a minority- Ivan D’Souza as MLC from the district,” the leader added. Others making rounds are former president of Udupi ZP Bhujanga Shetty, Milk Federation chief Diwakar Shetty, former member of Dakshina Kannada ZP Bharat Mundodi, former chief of Udupi DC, M.A. Gafur, general secretary of Dakshina Kannada district Congress, Harikrishna Bantwal and AICC member P V Mohan.