Would have helped if party had picked me sooner: Vinay Kulkarni

He may have lost two elections in a row, but the

Congress high command

is confident

Vinay Kulkarni

, former mines and geology minister in

Siddaramaiah’s cabinet

, will be successful this time around as he takes on incumbent and BJP bigwig Pralhad Joshi in Dharwad con stitue n cy. Kulkarni’s name was also a bit of a surprise since the party was reportedly mulling a Muslim candidate and he is from the dominant Lingayat community. Now, having ruffled the community, Kulkarni has the stiff task of winning the Muslim vote. The Lingayat leader is also banking heavily on OBC and minority votes, but he is confident he will beat Joshi and the BJP since the minorities have no option but to vote Congress. He is also banking on anti-incumbency against Joshi and the sympathy wave that is supposedly brewing in his favour since he lost two consecutive elections against Joshi. Excerpts from an interview:

The Congress delayed announcing its candidate and eventually picked you only a day before the deadline for filing nominations ended. Will this have an impact on the polls?
I wish the party had announced my name at least 15 days in advance. There are a lot of villages in this constituency and we are not sure if we will be able to reach out to all voters. Reaching out to everyone in a short span is definitely going to be a challenge.

You have faced back-to-back defeats (2014

Lok Sabha polls

and 2018 assembly elections). How confident are you of winning this time?
We are extremely confident of a win and that too by a huge margin. Our campaigns is running really well and smoothly. Party workers are toiling round the clock and in an organised manner and are working for a win. There is no problem. Past defeats will not have an impact.

The party was planning to field a minority candidate.

How do you plan to convince minorities now?

There was no pressure from the (Muslim) community for a ticket. The community is with us. Youth Congress leader Shakir Sanadi was seen as an aspirant. I did not join politics yesterday or today and I have no doubts about minorities extending their support to us.