Mangaluru: The moment news spread that Dakshina Kannada Youth Congress leader Mithun Rai’s name has been finalised for the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, messages on WhatsApp and other social media platforms claiming that the Billava community has been neglected started doing the rounds. Billavas , who reportedly have a large vote share, were expecting the Congress to field a candidate from their community.Sources informed that the community was expecting the party to finalise the name of either former minister Vinay Kumar Sorake or MP B K Hariprasad. The Congress is expected to release the candidate’s list on Saturday evening or on Sunday. Party sources have confirmed that Mithun Rai’s name has been finalised, but are not willing to come on record, until the official list is released.MLC and Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee president,Harish Kumar, said, “It is wrong to say that the party has neglected the Billava community. The party believes in social justice and hence had to strike a balance when it came to seat sharing in the Mysuru division comprising Chamrajanagar, Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru. MP R Dhruvanarayana is expected to contest from Chamarajanagar, Pramod Madhwaraj is the coalition candidate in Udupi-Chikkamagaluru and Vijayashankar from Mysuru also represents the OBC community.”Referring to Dakshina Kannada, Harish Kumar, said, “Out of the eight assembly segments, last year, Congress won only one seat and MLA U T Khader became a cabinet rank minister. Christian MLC- Ivan D’Souza is the parliamentary secretary to the revenue minister. Despite having a large vote share, leaders such as Gopal Poojary, Vinay Kumar Sorake and Vasanth Bangera lost in the assembly elections, and yet the Congress made me an MLC and gave me the post of DCC president. I represent the Billava community. The party has given a ticket to a Billava candidate 9 times and we won only four times. A stalwart like Janardhana Poojary lost five times. Even though one-third of the voters are Billavas, it is the right time to take a risk, and hence the party is considering giving the ticket to Mithun Rai .”With Mithun Rai’s name expected to be announced, Bunts have once again emerged as the politically powerful community in Dakshina Kannada. A senior BJP leader said, “In Dakshina Kannada, caste does not play a major role or have an impact on the voting pattern. There are roughly about 4.5 lakh Billava voters. Muslims are almost of the same strength, followed by Bunts, Gowdas, Vokkaligas, Christians and other communities.”Voter statsThe total number of voters in DK-16,97,417Men: 8,33,719Women: 8,63,599

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