Mangaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mangaluru City South Constituency is facing a contender from “its own fraternity” in next month’s Assembly election.

With Srikara Prabhu, a former president of the Mangaluru City South unit of the BJP whom the party expelled for six years in May 2014, filing his nomination papers as an Independent, the party’s candidate, D. Vedavyasa Kamath, is facing competition from a candidate who is also going to the polls with the same ideology as that of the BJP. He was also a former member of the State executive committee of the BJP.

Mr. Prabhu, a grassroots RSS worker, had in a recent public meeting in the city said that the BJP has failed to explain to him the specific reason for expelling him from the party.

The letter of expulsion issued by the party also did not mention the reason for expelling him. The letter has nowhere said that he has been expelled for “anti-party” activities. Hence, the party owed an explanation to workers like him.

According to Mr. Prabhu, his ideology cannot be different from that of the BJP as he was a long-time associate of the Sangh Parivar. Hence, he was also going to the people by projecting the same ideology.

It is not for the first time that the BJP is facing a contender in the constituency from its fraternity. In the last Assembly election, Dayananda Shetty, a candidate of the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), which was the breakaway faction of the BJP, contested the poll.

Mr. Shetty secured 657 votes, while N. Yogish Bhat, candidate of the BJP, polled 55,554 votes.

Akhila Bharata Hindu Mahasabha has also fielded its candidate in the South segment in this election.