Credit: DH Photo
Saffron colour dominated the nomination rally of Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, the Congress candidate for the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, last week.
Nimbalkar, clad in a saffron sari and headgear, and other leaders and party workers with saffron headgear, did not go unnoticed by the electorate.
While some voters attribute this to Nimbalkar’s Maratha background, some see it as an attempt to break into the Hindutva votes.
“She has taken the colour on lease from us till the elections are over. It’s not going to make any impact on the public,” says Kedar Kolle, a BJP leader in Uttara Kannada.
Interestingly, people of Khanapur have seen this saffron surge within the Congress since the Ram Temple inauguration in January.
Khanapur MLA Vittal Halgekar and Anjali Nimbalkar have been facilitating the gathering of people with saffron symbols in local temples, observes a local journalist. “This is seen as Nimbalkar’s move to counter the BJP’s effort to use Ram Temple as a poll plank,” he says. The Congress doesn’t seem to have thought about the repercussions of this move on the Muslim community, says Dr Haneef Shabab in Bhatkal. “Our votes are taken for granted,” he says.
A Congress sympathiser says that the temple inauguration has “awakened the ‘bhagva svabhiman’ among the Congress party members. They will vote for the Congress but use the symbols of Hindutva such as the saffron shawl.”
Nimbalkar says she is challenging the BJP’s claim on saffron colour.
“This colour has both religious and historical significance. The national flag and the Congress party flag have the colour, symbolising the sacrifices made during the freedom struggle. Saffron colour is no party’s property,” she says.