The Hindu

Karwar, Dec 9: In an apparent show of strength, the Congress took out a mammoth rally in Karwar before the party’s nominee for the coming byelections to the Legislative Assembly from Karwar Satish Sail filed his nomination papers.

The rally was much bigger compared with the one taken out by the Bharatiya Janata Party during filing nomination papers by its candidate and Fisheries, Science and Technology minister Anand Asnotikar.

Sail filed his nomination papers before the Assistant Commissioner of Karwar who is also the Returning officer of the Karwar Assembly constituency. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president R.V. Deshpande was present during the filing of the nomination papers.

Earlier, addressing the rally at Maladevi ground, Mr. Deshpande criticised the BJP Government for its failure in administration. He said the party which promised free electricity to farmers was now unable to give electricity in rural areas even for four hours a day. He said the financial condition of the State was very bad and development works in had come to standstill. The Government had become bankrupt, he said.

He appealed to the people to vote against Mr. Asnotikar for deceiving the Congress workers and the people who voted for him in the last Assembly elections. He said the BJP Government in Karnataka would fall once the results of the byelections were out. He criticised the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa for his failure in utilising the funds granted by the Union Government. He alleged that the corruption was rampant in the State and the Ministers had lost control over the bureaucracy.

He exhorted the party workers teach a lesson to the government which had indulged in defection of Opposition members.

Zilla panchayat president Gayatri Gowda criticised Mr. Asnotikar for not keeping his promise of including the Hadaka Vokkaligas in Scheduled Tribes list. But instead of fulfilling his promise, he ran after power forgetting the promises he made, she said.

Sail promised that he would work hard for the development of Karwar Assembly constituency if he was elected.

Many BJP workers and the Municipal councillors and the taluk panchayat and gram panchayat members of Karwar and Ankola tuluks joined the Congress.

A big procession was taken out in Karwar, in which thousands of Congress workers participated.