Janardhana Poojary, Harsha Moily file nominations for DK primary

Former Union minister B Janardhana Poojary, KPCC minority cell vice president U K Monu and Harsha Moily, son of Union Minister M Veerappa Moily, filed nominations for the primary for the Dakshina Kannada constituency on Friday, putting the Congress into poll mode in the district. 

There was a flurry of poll activity at the office of the district Congress committee throughout the day as candidates, accompanied by their supporters, arrived to file their nominations. Since nominations cannot be withdrawn, the primary is likely to be a triangular contest unless objections are filed  to the nominations, the deadline for which is 1 pm, Saturday. The polls will be held at Rosario college here on March 9. 

Meanwhile, according to insiders, money is said to have changed hands to woo the voters in the primary, just like in the regular elections, especially by the Moily faction. Another source, however, insisted that money was “not given to voters, but to some clubs and associations as donation, and it has got nothing to do with the primary”. 

On the other hand, several party leaders and workers are upset that their names have been omitted from the draft list of voters. 

Confident of bagging

Former chairperson of Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Tejomaya, who is also a close aide of Veerappa Moily, complained that he did not find a place in the voters’ list “despite serving the party for three decades”. He is confident that Harsha Moily would bag the nomination. Chaos prevailed at the office as names of many leaders as well as former MLAs were missing in the voters’ list. 

The Lok Sabha Returning Officer, Preniel Nair, said that some members had not submitted documents to prove their identity, hence their names were missing. 

Final list on Sunday

“If they are eligible, they will be included in the list,” he said, adding that the final list will be announced on Sunday.