Delhi/Bengaluru: The BJP is expected to finalise its list of candidates for the May 5 Assembly polls at its election committee meet in Delhi on Thursday. Sources said that Sri Rama Sene founder Pramod Muthalik is likely to get a ticket from Belgaum (north) constituency in Karnataka. He is infamous for instigating an assault on girls at a pub in Mangalore in 2009.
It is learnt that BJP is persuading Muthalik to join the party, as it is in "dire need of a leader who can actively project its Hindutva agenda." Pramod Muthalik, a Hindutva propagandist, shot to nationwide notoriety, when his workers attacked and beat up girls in a pub in Mangalore on 24 January 2009. Muthalik has dozens of cases pending against him in courts across the state, including cases for abusing the Muslim community and suspecting their loyalty to the country.
In January 2012, members of the Sri Ram Sene party were arrested for hoisting a Pakistani flag in front of the Tahsildar office at Sindagi in Karnataka and then blaming it on the Muslim community to ferment communal tensions. He has also launched the Rashtra Raksha Sene, which according to him is trained to fight Islamic groups, whom he refers to as 'terrorists'.
The BJP wants Muthalik to contest against the sitting Congress MLA Feroz Sait. According to reports, the party feels that he can use the Hindutva card to 'tilt the scales' in a region divided in linguistic politics.
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