Congress, BJP lock horns in Hindutva laboratory

MANGALURU: Though several citizens groups had threatened to boycott polls over lack of basic amenities in a few villages down the coast, the authorities have managed to convince them not to. 

The voter awareness created by SVEEP through various forms of media seems have worked well. 
People in western ghats are eager to punch the None of The Above (NOTA) button over ‘Save Netravathi’ and other issues. Ravi, an activist known for ‘kirikiri’ agitation, said the Netravathi will be on top of his mind when he casts his vote.

Meanwhile, a direct fight between Congress and BJP is expected in all 19 assembly segments of coastal Karnataka. While Congress is hopeful of retaining its present tally of 15 seats, BJP has left no stone unturned to recover much its lost ground in what is called the ‘laboratory of Hindutva’. It is in this region that the BJP tasted its first political success south of the Vindhyas in the 1980s. 

The party played its favourite Hindutva card hard, during the campaigning by raking up issues such as murders of BJP workers and minority appeasement by the incumbent Congress government. Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, the Hindutva poster boy and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adithyanath campaigned for three days in the region mostly whipping up the communal sentiments. 
Comparatively, the Congress party appeared on the backfoot in campaigning in the region. Except for Rahul Gandhi who addressed a rally in Mangaluru and who held 2-3 road shows in the region, there were no big names who were here.