When colleges turn votebanks

8216;8216;There is nothing illegal if a voter proves that he/she is 18 years old, has been staying in the area for the past six months and furnishes an affidavit pledging he has no voting rights elsewhere,8217;8217; said a source in the District Electoral Registration Office. When there were signs of 2004 being an election year, institutional heads openly began campaigning for political parties, pushing their interests.

Liquor baron-turned-educationist A.J. Shetty of the AJ Shetty Group which runs professional colleges, including a college of physiotherapy, has filed an application for a Congress ticket from the Mangalore Assembly seat. Hotelier Sadananda Shetty, whose Shree Devi Trust runs half-a-dozen professional colleges, is also in the same race.

Manjunath Bhandary, who runs a nursing college, is lobbying for his a ticket from Mangalore Parliamentary seat on a Congress ticket.

The BJP is not exactly lagging behind. Krishna Palemar, who runs a physiotherapy college, is being groomed to take on sitting Congress Suratkal MLA Vijaykumar Shetty.