Mangaluru: After the stellar performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections in the coastal districts, the BJP has set its eyes on winning the the Mangaluru City Corporation Council elections to be held after nine months.
For the first 25 years since the formation of the Mangaluru Corporation in 1984, the Congress party ruled the city’s local governance. It was in 2007 that BJP made its presence felt at the local level by wresting out power from the Congress party for the first time.
However, in the 2013 elections for the city corporation, BJP could not repeat its earlier performance. Of the 60 seats, it could win only 20 seats thereby securing seats and reduced to be the opposition. Congress clinched 35 seats, whereas JD(S) won 2 seats and CPI(M), Social Democratic Party and independent candidates each won one seat .
The BJP Councillors are trying to sail on the winds of change that decimated the Congress in the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections where BJP won seven out of 8 constituencies in Dakshina Kannada. The BJP winning the hearts of the people of Mangaluru South and Mangaluru North constituencies that come under Mangaluru City Corporation, has given an added confidence to the party this time around.
Speaking to NewsKarnataka.com, senior BJP leader Monappa Bhandary said, “We are focusing on winning all the seats in city corporation elections this time. As soon as the elections for the teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies of state Legislative Council are over, we will work for winning the elections for City Corporation and the Loka Sabha which will be held in 2019.”
It seems that the innovative method of employing “page-pramuks” who had contacted individual voters and persuaded them to vote for the BJP will be continued. “The Page-Pramuks who worked during the assembly elections will actively keep in touch with the voters till the corporation elections in Mangaluru and the Lokasabha elections are held”, Bhandary added.
