Lok Sabha Election 2024: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate teacher Ashwini ML is in the news these days in Kasargod Lok Sabha constituency, asking for votes from people in multiple languages with a cheerful smile and friendly behavior. She speaks Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu fluently while interacting with people in Kasaragod. Kasaragod is known as the ‘Land of Seven Languages’, where a large number of people speak Marathi, Konkani, Byari and Urdu.
Apart from Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu, Ashwini ML also knows Tamil, Hindi and English.
The candidature of BJP’s women’s front leader Ashwini for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 to be held on April 26 in the state had surprised everyone. Now she is busy in election campaign using her linguistic skills. Although initially the names of several senior party leaders were in the news, Ashwini was fielded as the BJP candidate in the constituency which had been a stronghold of the Left for a long time. Ashwini said that apart from Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu, she is also familiar with Tamil, Hindi and English. He said, this gives me extra confidence during the election campaign. He said, since I was born, brought up and studied in Bengaluru, Kannada has been a part of my life since childhood. Since our neighbors were from Tamil Nadu and friends were from North Indian states, there was no difficulty in learning Tamil and Hindi.
Kasargod district is known for its linguistic diversity.
Kasargod district, adjoining the neighboring state of Karnataka, is known for its linguistic diversity. According to the 2011 census, 82.07 percent people here speak Malayalam, 4.02 percent people speak Kannada, 8.08 percent people speak Tulu and 1.8 percent people speak Marathi. About 30,000 and 25,000 people speak Urdu and Konkani respectively.
This was how the 2019 elections were
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rajmohan Unnithan of Congress defeated Satish Chandran of Marxist Communist Party by about 40,000 votes. Unnithan got 4,74,961 votes, Chandran got 4,34,523 while BJP candidate Ravisha Tantri Kuntar got only 1,76,049 votes.
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