Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (VM)
Mangalore, Apr 18: "Every election is a challenge for us. With each election, the party grows stronger and excels. The selection of candidates for the assembly election has been done in various stages after taking all aspects into consideration," said petroleum minister Veerappa Moily.
He addressed the media during his visit to the party office in Nantoor on Thursday April 18.
"Our party is old and large, hence the problem of plenty arises where a few leaders get disappointed when they do not get ticket. The party activists should wait for the right opportunity rather taking hurried decisions. I too did not get chance to contest in the election for 12 years but now I am a central minister," he said.
Commenting on Vasanth Salian who left the party after being denied the ticket, minister Moily said the party had given him chance 7 times to contest in the election out of which 5 times he won and twice he was the minister. "He has done injustice to the party by quitting," he said.
Speaking about the bomb blast in Bangalore, he said the incident should not be politicized. "If the state government needs any help in investigation, the central government is ready to help. The problem in the country is we do not have a federal system. Even when there was proposal made by the center about it, majority of the chief ministers opposed it," he said.
On the forthcoming elections, Moily said he had travelled to various places during the last elections in 2008, but the response in this election has been better as party activists are working harder.
Corporator Shashidar Hegde, Naveen D’Souza, former mayor Ashraf and several other party activists were present.