Moodabidiri: In an exciting twist to the Assembly elections here, Janata Dal (S) Block President, entrepreneur and youth leader Ashwin Jossy Periera has filed his nominations for the Moodabidri Constituency as an independent candidate on April 24.
Ashwin Periera who enjoys massive youth support was declared to be the MLC candidate for South West Graduates Constituency by the JD(S) high-command in October last year. With JD(S) announcing the ticket to former minister and JD(S) local strongman Amarnath Shetty, people expected a triangular fight between Abayachandra Jain of Congress and Umanath Kotian of BJP. People often talked that Amarnath’s candidature might help the Congress as the votes of the powerful Bunt community will be split between the BJP and JD(S).
However, these calculations were discarded as Amarnath Shetty announced his decision not to contest the elections citing reasons of old age and health issues. The JD(S) scrambled to find another leader for the bunt community and zeroed in on Jeevan Shetty and was issued ‘B’ Form by the high-command. Ashwin Periera, who was the next in line in the party chain of command here, was upset with the party’s decision to field Jeevan Shetty. According to sources, JD(S) high command was interested to field Ashwin, but the local leaders opposed the move.
Disgruntled by this, Ashwin has filed his nominations as JD(S) rebel. A communication from his office said that he will be contesting as an independent candidate if the party doesn’t issue ‘B’ Form by the end of the day today.
