Mangaluru: As assembly elections are around the corner, political parties have begun their campaigning in full swing. As a testimony to this, two large flexes touching each other, each from the Congress and the BJP, have come up in Moodbidri constituency.

The hoardings give out a common message that a grant has been sanctioned for the constituency under the Central Road Fund. The road is being constructed from Niddodi, Muchoor and Yedapadav leading to the highway.

However, while one flex hails Moodbidri Congress MLA Abhayachandra Jain for getting the Rs 9.72 crore sanctioned, the other one praises BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel for striving to get the funds released from the Central government. The pictures of these flexes have garnered attention on the social media for the last couple of days.

Fumed with the presence of the Congress flex, the BJP has alleged the grand old party had only been trying to gain some publicity. “The moment the Congressmen realised that the funds have been released, they decided to take advantage of it. As soon as they learnt about the grant, the MLA and the state ministers decided to erect a flex.

The grant is sanctioned from the Centre. The state has no role in it,” Umanatha Kotian, a BJP leader from Moodbidri.

On the other hand, Jain told that the money was the share the state was entitled to receive from the Centre. The MLA countered Kotian saying he indeed played a role in getting the funds released.

Training his guns on Kateel, Jain rued that as seven of the eight MLAs in the district are from the Congress and that the MP is from the BJP, their differences have shown in the amount of funds the district has received.

“The Karkala MLA has got Rs 200 crore sanctioned for his constituency. He and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje visited Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways, together and got such a huge sum sanctioned.

But we got only Rs 30 crore after a proposal for grant was raised through the public works department. We got such a meagre amount because Kateel did not cooperate with me as he and I are from the rival parties. If he had cooperated, we would have got at least Rs 100 crore sanctioned for the Moodbidri assembly constituency,” he said.