Click to play videoMangalore: Mangalore is highly literate, relatively better developed and richer than other parts of Karnataka. This coastal city has a slow and peaceful pace to it.
But would Mangalore rise to the occasion this election?
Says Director, Father Muller Hospital, Rev Denis D'Sa, "Mangalore is the educated hub, there are so many institutions here and people are educated, civilized, but that consciousness, political consciousness is lacking, I feel."
Elections, however, could see different sections of Mangalore come together – even the middle class that stayed away in the first phase of polls.
"I think the middle class will be supporting the Congress and the Congress will do much better in the coastal region," predicted Congress candidate U T Khader.
So Mangaloreans may turn up, but what factors will influence their choice? National issues such as inflation or local problems?
"Mangalore has very different problems,” explained Prof P L Dharma, the Head of the Department of Political Science, Mangalore University. “The local problems dominate in electioneering in Dakshina Kannada; the new leaders, after delimitation, are not able to address the local problems.”
There is another election issue as well – the communal riots of 2006, in which more than a 100 people were injured.
Like Mangalore, the entire coastal belt has been a BJP stronghold. But this time, the communal disturbances of 2006, and the strong minority factor could prove decisive – at least that's what everyone believes.
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