Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, May 16: BJP's 38-year-old candidate, Nalin Kumar Kateel (Nalin Kumar Niranjan Shetty) who was the fresh face fielded by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha election and had won it with ease, has registered his second straight victory against B Janardhana Poojary, veteran Congress leader and former union minister, with a margin of nearly 1.5 lac votes. Nalin had been rewarded with the party ticket taking into consideration his long association with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and his contribution to the organizational machinery of BJP in the capacity of district general secretary in the last edition of Lok Sabha election.
Nalin was facing challenge in this election from M R Vasudeva of AAP and Haneef Khan of SDPI, which was supported by JDS in this election, among others. He maintained steady lead in all the legislative assembly constituencies, Beltangady, Mangalore city north, Mangalore city south, Mangalore, Moodbidri, Bantwal, Puttur, and Sullia. AAP and SDPI failed to make any imptact on the voters, going by the number of votes secured by them.
The fact that Dakshina Kannada constituency had registered highest poll percentage of 77.18 this time, had given rise to lot of speculations. A number of newspapers had come to the conclusion that educated youngsters, especially first time voters, had come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise this time in this constituency. Internal differences within the BJP, which spilled into the open just before the polling date and widened thereafter, had resulted in the suspension of some important office bearers. This development was expected to throw a spanner in the party's chances this time. But nothing of this sort happened.