By Stany Bela
Pics: Steephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Oct 18: The election fever is high in Manjeshwar, locally called as ‘Gadinadu’ as it lies on the Karnataka and Kerala border. The Manjeshwar Vidhana Sabha constituency seat has been vacant since October 2018, after the death of Indian Union Muslim League’s P B Abdul Razak. The by-election will be held on October 21 and the votes will be counted on October 24.
P B Abdul Razak had won this seat with a meager margin of 89 votes against BJP’s K Surendran in 2016. NDA is hoping that BJP candidate Kuntar Ravish Tantry who hails from Kasargod will bring them victory this time.
Same time, M C Khamaruddin, the candidate of United Democratic Front (UDF) has pinned his hopes on emerging victorious with a margin bigger than what Razak had secured.
Ravish Tantry, Khamaruddin and Shankar Rai
Meanwhile, after the declaration of its candidate Shankar Rai Master, CPI (M) led LDF camp is fully charged and expecting an unexpected result as they got in 2011.
According to political analysts this time, the result is unpredictable. Last year it was a straight fight between UDF and NDA. But this time, LDF’s candidate Shankar Rai Master who is a local person, is capable of influencing people.
Rai comes from a Communist family. His father Thimmanna Rai is a traditional medical practitioner. He has been a Yakshagana and theatre artiste for the past 41 years. Also, he was the president of the state government’s Yakshagana Kalashetram. By profession, he is a teacher who retired from Angadimogar School as Headmaster. Rai is known to deliver satirical speeches in Kannada, Tulu, and Malayalam and is fluent in Hindi, English, and Arabic also.
Immediately after declaration of candidature, Shankar Rai Master started his campaign and is now on the forefront. As per calculation of LDF, the Kannada and Tulu speaking voters will back Rai. At the same time, the party also thinks that members of Rai's community with almost thirty thousand voters will support Shankar Rai.
UDF leaders think this by-election is very important for the alliance. They have full of confidence that M C Khamaruddin will win with over fifteen thousand votes. But the rebel voice from youth league has become a matter of worry. The local Muslim Youth League members and leaders are not happy with M C Khamaruddin as he is an outsider. It is their long time demand that a local candidate should contest election under UDF banner. They are also blaming that the party's victory with low margin was due to negligence of local candidates.
But UDF party leaders claim that after visit of Ramesh Chennithala, opposition leader of Kerala Legislative Assembly to constituency, they succeeded to bring everything under control. They claim it is a straight contest between UDF and NDA. Along with national and state, the local issues are also being highlighted in campaign. The developmental works undertaken during the tenure of late P B Abdul Razak, the saffron organisations attacks on minority in various corners of the nation, financial crisis, unemployment and BJP's communal agenda are their core issues of campaign.
In the case of BJP led NDA, its leaders are busy aiming to convert their previous low margin defeat into victory. To woo Kannada speaking community, the party fielded Kuntar Ravish Tantry. The NDA camp believes that Tantry's influence in Hindu religious circles will favour the party. They are mainly concentrating on bagging the last time’s votes along with new votes and increase their margin.
Similar to UDF, NDA is also facing rebel voices in camp. Majority of local leaders and party workers are not happy with their candidate. They wanted a local candidate who is very influential in the constituency. But state leadership stood with Ravish Tantry.
2016 election data– Manjeshwar Constituency
Total votes: 2,08,165
Polled votes : 1,58,884
Polling percentage : 76.33%
PB Abdul Razak (Muslim league) 56,870
K Surendran (BJP) 56,781
C H Kunhjanbu (CPIM) 42 ,565.