Stany Bela
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Apr 16: With just a day to go for the Lok Sabha polls in the district, political party workers that are warring against each other and also battling the extreme heat seem to have put a break for their public campaign.

Now a silent campaign has begun to ensure maximum votes for their respective candidates. This will act as a final touch before voters head to polling booths. As per political analysts, in Dakshina Kannada, BJP and Congress have fought neck and neck for the the upcoming Lok Sabha campaign. Both parties have full confidence that they will emerge victorious.

Just before of Modi’s arrival to Mangaluru, Congress had a clear upper hand in its campaign strategy, with anti-incumbency weighing heavily against BJP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel. It was even speculated that incomplete works, especially the long-pending Pumpwell flyover, would do him much damage. However, now after PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Mangaluru, the BJP camp has got a spring in its step. If the crowd at Modi rally was any indication, BJP has every reason to cheer about its prospects, Pumpwell flyover notwithstanding.

Earlier, BJP maintained suspense on the DK candidate up until the very last moment. There was a clear disagreement over fielding Nalin Kumar again. BJP workers were a bit confused on how to start the first round of campaign without the candidate being declared. A majority of them thought Nalin would not get the ticket and it would go to a fresh and young face. However, the BJP high command decided to go with him again, probably certain of the fact that the pro-Modi coastal district will vote for him anyway irrespective of the local candidate. The party leadership also gave clear indications to its district leadership and members to work for Nalin's victory. To wade over the dissatisfaction over Nalin’s candidature, BJP district committee directed the party workers to seek vote for Modi.

As per sources close to BJP, the party leadership is confident because in the final internal survey conducted by the party, it clearly predicts Nalin Kumar Kateel's victory. Despite the initial hurdles over Nalin’s candidature, the trend has now changed. By bringing in Modi, the party leadership has succeeded in uniting all party workers with the sole aim to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister once more. With Modi's 'Vijay Sankalp' rally, party workers have succeeded in diverting the issues and complaints from people over local development.

At the start of its election campaign, BJP was worried about Vijaya Bank merger and the disappointment of Billava community over ticket allotment. To overcome these issues, BJP planned alternative strategies. But after the arrival Modi, the party camp is confident that it has influenced the voters to choose Nalin Kumar Kateel simply to retain the Modi government in the centre. The party has teams of 7 members each for 10 houses, and they have already completed five rounds of visits to houses in their areas. Now they have been give the special responsibility on election day to visit houses where they have 50-50 possibilities. They plan to speak more about dynast politics of Congress and military operations against Pakistan and terrorists inside the country, sources close to BJP said.

Despite many challenges on social media for the last few days, BJP's IT cell has heavily engaged in wooing young voters in the name of Hindutva and Modi. It is learnt that the party’s high command has sent special guidelines to the state IT cells and urged them to give 70 percent publicity to Modi, 20 percent to state leadership and 10 percent to local candidates. But in the case of Dakshina Kannada, the campaign revolves 100 percent around Modi.

A few office-bearers of BJP district committee, when contacted, expressed complete satisfaction about their election campaign and confidence in Nalin's victory. As per them, people have already decided to vote for Modi. The six MLAs of BJP have put maximum efforts to increase majority votes from their respective constituencies. "I won MLA election by 16,000 votes, but now from my constituency, I will ensure a margin of 40,000 votes for Nalin Kumar," said Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath. Umanath Kotian also is doing the same and he is confident that Nalin will get a majority of 40,000 votes in Moodbidri. It indicates that the party leadership has given a target to all party MLAs to ensure more than 20,000 votes in their respective constituencies.

When it comes to Congress camp there are high expectations and a new enthusiasm which was not seen in earlier elections. Congress also kept everyone guessing about its candidate till a day before the nomination filing. It was an open secret that the high command had decided the candidature of Mithun Rai weeks before nomination. But they took time to convince some senior leaders who were in the race. Once the nomination was declared, the local Congress leadership stood behind Mithun.

Congress started its campaign by highlighting local issues especially the merger of Vijaya Bank, privatisation of airport and sea port, incomplete Pumpwell and Thokkottu flyovers. But later, the party leadership realized that these issues only woo voters of Mangaluru city and its surroundings. Immediately they shifted their gear to soft Hindutva in Puttur, Sullia, Beltangady, Moodbidri constituencies and managed to maintain the rapport.

In contrast to last election, a large number of youth came out to support Mithun Rai. Youth Congress and NSUI took all responsibilities of field work and campaign on social media. They mainly focused on highlighting Mithun Rai’s education, his devotion to Hanuman, love for 'Gau Mata' and his dream projects for Dakshina Kannada. As per sources, the party leadership let their youth brigade campaign on the basis of Hindutva while senior leaders focused their campaign on the failure of Nalin Kumar. At the same time, however, Mithun Rai made it a point to win the hearts of people from all communities, and his speeches often dwelt on the importance of communal harmony in the district.

In social media too, Congress had an upper hand up till the arrival of Modi. They posted continuous trolls against Nalin Kumar. BJP's IT cell was even struggling to troll Mithun Rai and the district Congress. To challenge Congress IT cell, many times they dragged Rahul Gandhi into local issues. But after Modi's rally, the BJP IT cell was filled with new energy and they came with new retorts to Congress trollers.

There were huge expectations within the Congress over Rahul Gandhi’s or Priyanka Gandhi’s visit to Mangaluru. State leadership had even fixed Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the city, but was forced to cancel it at the eleventh hour due to technical reasons. Except for Shatrughan Sinha, no major national Congress face came to the city. Even with Shatrughan's visit, because of poor coordination, the city meet was cancelled and he went to Mudipu.

All said and done, it is up to the voters to decide who they think would represent their interest best at the national level. Nalin may win if people choose to have Modi as PM again, but if anti-incumbency factor kicks in, voters may choose the fresh, young and dynamic Mithun Rai to represent them.