By TwoCIrcles.net Staff Reporter,
Bengaluru: Media reports are abuzz with speculation about the possibility of Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, contesting the upcoming assembly elections as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Belgaum (north) constituency in Karnataka.
It is learnt that BJP is persuading Muthalik to join the party, as it is in “dire need of a leader who can actively project its Hindutva agenda.”
Pramod Muthalik, a Hindutva propagandist, shot to nationwide notoriety, when his minions attacked and beat up girls in a pub in Mangalore on 24 January 2009. He has dozens of cases pending against him in courts across the state, including cases for abusing the Muslim community and suspecting their loyalty to the country.
In January, 2012 members of his party were arrested for hoisting a Pakistani flag in front of the Tahsildar office at Sindagi in Karnataka and then blaming it on the Muslim community to forment communal tensions.
He has also launched the Rashtra Raksha Sene, which according to him is trained to fight Islamic groups, whom he refers to as ‘terrorists’.
The BJP wants Muthalik to contest against the sitting Congress MLA Feroz Sait. According to reports, the party feels that he can use the Hindutva card to ‘tilt the scales’ in a region divided in linguistic politics.