Mangaluru: Dominated by arecanut plantations, the headquarters of Puttur constituency is a prominent arecanut trading centre in Dakshina Kannada after Mangaluru.

The sitting Congress MLA Shakunthala T. Shetty, a party hopper, is facing tough competition in getting the party ticket from aspirants within the Congress.

If the party fields her again, Ms. Shetty will be contesting the Assembly election for the sixth time. She has won twice, on BJP and Congress tickets. Farmers have given priority to cultivating rubber after arecanut. The Rubber Board has set up its Regional Office in Puttur town which also has the Directorate of Cashew Research, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

The only chocolate factory managed by the cooperative sector in the State is in this constituency. The factory of the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (Campco) is near Darbe. The house of Jnanapith awardee Kota Shivaram Karanth is at Parladkka in the town. The house at Balavana was restored last year by the INTACH. The birth place of Koti and Chennaya, Tuluva twin heroes, is believed to be Padumale under the constituency.

The constituency has highest endosulfan victims in Dakshina Kannada. Of 3,628 endosulfan victims identified in the district 1,560 victims are in Koila, Alankaru, Vitla, Panaje. A day care centre for the victims has been set up at Koila. In the past 12 Assembly elections, the Congress has won six times, and the BJP five times in this constituency. The then Janata Paksha won in 1978.

The MLA, Ms. Shetty, who was earlier with the BJP, had faced B. Ramanath Rai of the Congress, now Minister in-charge of the district, from Bantwal Assembly Constituency in 1994 and 1999 elections. She did not win.

Later, the BJP fielded her from Puttur in 2004 where she won. After the BJP denied her party ticket for the 2008 election Ms. Shetty contested as an Independent and lost. The former BJP MLA, K. Rama Bhat, who rebelled against the BJP, supported Ms. Shetty by forming Swabhimani Vedike. She secured 25,171 votes (20.4 %) and Mallika Prasad of the BJP who won got 46,605 (37.77 %) votes.

She joined the Congress in the last Assembly election and won against Sanjeeva Matandoor who is now president of Dakshina Kannada unit of the BJP. It is not yet clear whether the BJP would field Mr. Matandoor again. D.V. Sadananda Gowda of the BJP and Vinay Kumar Sorake of the Congress, who won from this constituency twice earlier, have been elected as MP from Udupi, and Mr. Gowda has also been elected as MP from Bengaluru North.