On eve of local body polls, BJP packs Karwar, Ankola councillors to Goa resort

Karwar: Twenty members of the BJP of Karwar CMC and some members of Ankola Town Municipality have been shifted to a resort in Goa to protect them from being poached during the election to the preisdent and the vice-president posts in the respective local bodies. On the eve of the election, BJP played safe by shifting its members to a state where the party is in power.
Though the election is scheduled for Sunday, there is a difference of opinion in the BJP camp over the selection of candidates for the top posts. JD(S) has openly offered its support to BJP, and the latter has absolute majority.
Though the saffron party has finalised the list of the candidates, it fears cross-voting by its members. As a precautionary measure, BJP and JD(S) members, as also some independents, were sent to a star hotel at Canacona in Goa. On Saturday, they were first summoned to a hotel in Karwar, only to be packed off to the hotel in Canacona, 50km from here.
On Sunday morning, they will be directly ferried to the election venue in Karwar. However, local BJP leaders dismissed the development, saying the party members and the allies are together, and nobody will break away. “Our members had not gone anywhere since March. They are in a Goa hotel for recreation,” BJP sources said.
Meanwhile, Congress members at Karwar CMC said that they will abstain from voting on Sunday. “The party has completely surrendered to BJP, and giving it the posts of president and vice-president in Karwar and Ankola on a platter. High command should take note of this. Else the party will be decimated in the area,” they said.
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THE LAST RESORT: The resort at Canacona in Goa, where the BJP members are holed up;
vehicles that ferried the CMC members are parked outside the resort