Coastal Karnataka: It is a very different campaign out there this year

The coast in Karnataka promises to throw up an interesting battle, with no party leaving anything to chance.

The coast has for long been the bastion of the BJP. The 2018 elections were fought on the Hindutva line. The campaign pitch was more about a fight to protect Hindutva. The BJP went all out to blame the Siddaramaiah government which was then in power for not doing much when six Hindu youths were murdered allegedly by members of the now banned Popular Front of India (PFI). The campaign by the BJP this time around is different. The focus is heavily on development and nationalistic pride.

The hijab issue that had dominated this region has not been raked up as yet and parties would like to keep it that way. Experts OneIndia spoke with said that the coast has remained tense for long and all parties want to change that. Hence the push is around development this time.

There are 19 seats up for grabs in coastal Karnataka. This region covers Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi. In 2018, the BJP had won 17 from this region. The Congress managed just two-U T Khader and Shivram Hebbar. However Hebbar jumped ship and joined the BJP, thus making Khader the lone Congress MLA from this region.

While the BJP's pitch is development, the Congress is focusing on the failures of the Basavaraj Bommai led BJP government. The Congress is also focusing on how a vote for the BJP will change the social fabric in the region.

What is interesting is that none of the parties are campaigning on a communal line this time. Issues such as hijab, halal, azaan and boycott of Muslim traders have dominated this region in the past. Both the Congress and BJP want to keep it straight and ensure that the campaign is on issues such a development, corruption and progress.

Ticket distribution:

Both the Congress and BJP have been very cautious when it comes to ticket distribution. The BJP denied five of its MLAs tickets. They include Sullia's sitting MLA S Angara, an MLA of six times. The BJP's MLA from Udupi Raghupati Bhat too was denied a ticket. The other MLAs include Lalaji R Mendon, M Sukumar Shetty and Malady Srinivas.

The Congress too has fielded several new faces, which include former Union Minister, Margaret Alva's son, Nivedit. The other new faces are M Dinesh Hegde, G Krishnappa and Rakshit Shivaram.