S.P. Dinesh, the rebel candidate of the Congress contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency, addressing a press conference in Mangaluru on Tuesday, May 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The rebel candidate of the Congress contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ constituency, S.P. Dinesh, said here on Tuesday, that the Congress candidate in the constituency Ayanur Manjunath has disrespected the graduates by resigning from the membership of the Council even before completing his six-year term.

Addressing presspersons Mr. Dinesh said that no one had asked Mr. Manjunath, elected from the BJP, to resign while he had more than a year for his term to end. But he quit a year ago. “Did any graduate from the constituency ask him to resign? Is it not a disrespect shown to voters?” Mr. Dinesh asked.

The rebel candidate said that the Congress has issued the ticket to a party-hopper (Ayanur Manjunath) who lost the deposit by contesting the last Assembly elections from Shivamogga on the Janata Dal (Secular) ticket. He could get only 8,000 votes in the Assembly elections. Mr. Manjunath has switched parties among the BJP, Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).

“My contest is against the party-hopper and not against the Congress,” Mr. Dinesh, an advocate, said.

Previous candidature

The rebel candidate said that he contested the Council elections from the same constituency from the Congress in 2012 and 2018 and lost. “I lost the 2012 elections against D.H. Shankaramurthy of the BJP by a margin of 918 votes. I got 6,500 more votes in 2018 when compared to 2012,” he said.

Mr. Dinesh said that if the Congress wanted to change him over losing the two elections, it could have issued the ticket to a grassroots party worker or leader. But now, it has issued the ticket to a person (Ayanur Manjunath) who makes guest appearances in the party whenever he wants.

To a question, Mr. Dinesh said that those responsible for denying ticket to him are in Shivamogga and not outside. “Even the KPCC president was not aware of the party high command denying ticket to me,” Mr. Dinesh claimed.

The rebel leader said if he gets elected, he would like to build Graduates’ Bhavans in districts where unemployed graduates will be given coaching to face competitive examinations. There will be libraries and arrangements for graduates to apply for competitive examinations and jobs.