Mangaluru: With elections due to the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council on November 12, the stage is set for another battle between the Congress and the BJP.
While the Congress, which has suffered several defeats in recent assembly and parliamentary polls, is desperate to retain its hold on the civic agency, the BJP too has set its sights on winning the MCC poll as Mangaluru is the hometown of its state chief, Nalin Kumar Kateel.
The Congress has asked its ticket hopefuls to submit their applications by Saturday to give it enough time to decide on the candidates with the last date for filing of nomination being October 31.
“We hardly have any time to prepare for the election. The selection of candidates will be a challenge as there are a large number of aspirants and the election is just about three weeks away. Those who are denied tickets, may contest as rebels or join our opponents and there is not enough time to pacify them,” said a former Congress corporator, admitting that unless the party fought the poll unitedly , it would find it difficult to win it.
The BJP too is making a serious effort to return to power in the MCC after a span of five years as a defeat could be a blow to Mr Kateel, who is from Mangaluru city. Should the party lose the poll, it could give his opponents fodder to gun for him and accuse him of failing to organise the party on his own turf, say party leaders.
“Despite the reservation being in favour of the Congress we will come to power in the MCC as we have able candidates in all the wards. People want the BJP to come to power,” said BJP Mangaluru Vibhag prabhari Uday Kumar Shetty.
