Congress failed in conveying government's good work in Dakshina Kannada?

Mangaluru: Although the Congress swept the assembly elections in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada not so long ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to retain its hold over the Zilla Panchayats in both districts in the recent local bodies’ elections. Some are now blaming the failure of Congress leaders and workers to take the programmes of the state government to the people.

“The Congress government has initiated several projects in the state. Had the workers and leaders spoken about them instead of accusing Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, they would have won the election with better results,” says prof. P.L. Dharma of Mangalore University’s political science department.

“The other interesting fact is that by and large the voters supported candidates who had worked for them in the past. They did not care which party a candidate belonged to, but only about the work he or she had done,” Prof Dharma adds. “Opposition parties succeeded in giving negative publicity to our programmes. But our leaders failed to counter this,” agrees a local Congress leader.

Communist leader, Shekhar Laila, believes the Congress failed to capitalize on the people’s mood in the coastal districts. “People of the coast , who were fed up with the moral policing and vigilante activities of the saffron parties, voted for the Congress in the last assembly election. But it failed to stop these incidents or even strongly condemn them after coming to power. In addition the arrogance of some the Congress MLAs has upset the voters,” he says.