Shankarmurthy, if wins, will be caged tiger, says Congress MLC candidate

Congress candidate for Legislative Council (South West Degree constituency) election S P Dinesh has opined that it is time BJP gave opportunity to the youth to represent the vibrant degree constituency.

Addressing his maiden news conference after being declared as the candidate for the constituency, in Mangalore on Friday, Dinesh said that he is confident of winning the election on his own credibility, despite the fact that he is contesting against veteran leader D H Shankarmurthy.

He alleged that Shankarmurthy has forgotten his duties and so far has not responded to the problems of the degree constituency. 

He will continue to be the Council Chairman even if he wins the election. In this case, he will be nothing more than a caged tiger. With the responsibility of the Council, he will surely not be able to concentrate on the problems of the constituency which spans over five districts (Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu) and two taluks (Honnalli, Chadagiri in Dharwad).

Keeping forth his priorities, he said that preference for Kannadigas in Information Technology, Bio Technology sectors, uniform syllabus in State Universities, centralized evaluation system and recruitment of Law graduates in various legal fields including that of the post of the Sub Inspectors compulsorily will be his agenda for the constituency.

He said that in the constituency, there are over 10 lakh voters but the problem is with the enrollment of the voters, which is rather weak. 

In Dakshina Kannada district, he said, only 8,000 voters have enrolled so far. The enrollment process is still on and importance will be given to publicity, he said.

Congress leaders Vijay Kumar Shetty, Ivan D’Souza among others were present.