KASARAGOD: Following the announcement of Raveesha Tanti Kuntar as BJP candidate in Manjeswaram, the party’s local leadership has come up protesting the decision. The leadership was notified by the Panchayat committees of Kumbala and Manjeswaram that they will not get involved in election activities. A section of leaders shares the concern that neutral voters won’t favour Tantri’s candidature.

BJP had the scheme to garner as many neutral votes possible this time. The party approached Congress leaders Subbaiah Rai which didn’t materialize. Then the indications were towards BJP state President K. Sreekanth or party’s constituency President Satheesh Chandra Bhandari.

But the central leadership selected Raveesh Tantri Kuntar after a section of state leadership and RSS backed him. However, his candidature was not received well by several sectors of the BJP.

Raveesh Tantri Kuntar could not repeat performance similar to K. Surendran’s election campaign in 2016 when he lost by just 89 votes. Criticisms were raised that Tantri couldn’t garner votes including those from new voters. But the candidate is hopeful of the upcoming by-election.