Campaigning in the economically developed but communally torn coastal Karnataka district of Mangalore for the second phase of polls in the state, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday exhorted voters to break out of the web of hatred being spread by some forces.

The Congress president said her party is keen to develop Mangalore in the mould of Bangalore by directing information technology investments to the commerce driven district.

“We will give special attention to Mangalore. There are many plans being put in place to provide employment to the youth in the region. We want to develop Mangalore like Bangalore and Hyderabad,” the Congress president said.

“Only the Congress can protect all sections of the society,” she said while asking a crowd of nearly 8,000 at the Nehru Maidan here to vote on May 16 for a government that can run for a full term.

“Some parties spread hatred and trap people in a constant fight with each other, others are opportunists who will hold the hand of anyone for power,” Sonia Gandhi said, while alleging that the state had regressed during the tenure of the BJP-JD(S) coalition.

Referring to incidents of communal violence in the region in October 2006, the Congress president said “an atmosphere of hatred has been created in the society here through the injection of the poison of enmity between communities”.

“We want to work in Karnataka the way the UPA government has been working in Delhi,” she said.

The Congress president received a rousing welcome from a mixed crowd— representative of the diverse people in the region, after Congress leader Janardhan Poojary, who hails from the region, revved the audience into action.

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