Karnataka Election 2023: Sri Rama Sena chief Pramod Mutalik to fight between BJP, Congress in Karkala

In this constituency, founder of Hindutva outfit Sri Rama Sena Pramod Mutalik is taking on Minister for Energy, Kannada and Culture and incumbent three-time BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar whose routes were in the Bajrang Dal.

Udupi's Karkala constituency assumes significance as the Bharatiya Jan Sangh opened its first account in coastal Karnataka in this constituency in 1967 elections. In 1972, the Congress took over the constituency and the BJP snatched it back in 2004.

In this constituency, founder of Hindutva outfit Sri Rama Sena Pramod Mutalik is taking on Minister for Energy, Kannada and Culture and incumbent three-time BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar whose routes were in the Bajrang Dal.

The Sri Ram Sena founder is contesting as an Independent while the Congress has fielded Muniyal Uday Kumar Shetty, an entrepreneur-cum-contractor. The Congress which snatched the seat from the Jan Sangh retained it till 1999 (seven elections).

It was former Congress Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily who bagged the seat in 1972. It was Mr. Kumar who as the BJP candidate snatched the seat again from the Congress in 2004. He lost the next election in 2008 to the Congress and made it to the Assembly again in the next two elections (2013, 2018).

In 2013 elections, the BJP lost in all four of five Assembly segments in Udupi district. Kumar was the only candidate who won from Karkala. When the BJP MLA won the elections for the first time, he was the State convener of the Bajrang Dal.

It is reportedly said that the Sri Ram Sena chief is among those who groomed Kumar, and the two are now fighting each other. Mr. Mutalik, who was nowhere in the political scene of coastal belt, appeared suddenly in Udupi in this January and announced at a press conference that he will fight against "corrupt and anti-Hindu politicians" in Karkala.

He said that he was unhappy with the way Kumar was treating Hindutva activists. Illegal cattle transportation and slaughtering are on the rise in Karkala constituency, he claimed, and appealed to the BJP to extend its support to his candidature by fielding Kumar from any other constituency.

In the meantime, the Congress rebelled against its nominee Shetty and questioned the criteria used to choose him. Manjunath Poojary, the president of Hebri Block Congress and a former representative to the Udupi Zilla Panchayat, claimed that Shetty had previously ties to BJP leaders.

He alleged that in 2018 Assembly elections, Shetty had asked his followers to vote in favour of the BJP as he had not got ticket from the Congress then.