HAVERI: Three-time Haveri MP Shivakumar Udasi is not a hardcore politician like his father, Hanagal MLA CM Udasi. With an engineering degree under his belt, and busy with his several businesses, he is certainly not a 24x7 neta. Yet, he has a strong grip on his constituency.
An MP for the past 10 years, Udasi says he believes in the principle of ‘Kayakave Kailasa’ (Work is worship), and has taken up several developmental works across the constituency -- be it rail and road development or implementing various social welfare projects of the previous Modi government. Due to his efforts, a Central School was sanctioned for Gadag and a Passport Seva Kendra for Haveri, though both are yet to start functioning.
“Haveri constituency stood first in implementing the Ujwala Yojana for the state, with 1.92 poor families benefiting by free LPG connections,” Shivakumar pointed out. With his effort, 19 road works worth Rs 185.50 crore were taken up under the Central Road Fund, and NH-4 is being upgraded into six lanes in his constituency. Ranebennur and Gadag were brought under the Amrut City Yojana. He not only puts in efforts to get projects sanctioned, he also releases grants and coordinates with officials in implementing them.
After getting elected for the third time, Shivakumar is wasting no time in drafting a plan for the next five years. He said that linking the Bedti and Varada rivers of the region is one of two river-linking projects sanctioned by the Union government. “I will try to implement it for the welfare of farmers, as well as resolve the drinking water problem. Realising the dream of setting up a food park in Haveri is on top of my mind.”
Another sector the MP is focusing on is improving railway infrastructure. He will put more efforts into getting sanction for the new Gadag-Yalavigi railway line and Ranebennur-Shikaripur-Shivamogga railway line, electrification of the Gadag-Hootagi line, besides a rail overbridge across the Motebennur-Byadgi Road, Ranebennur-Chalageri Road and Gadag-Hombal Road.
Though initially considered a political greenhorn, Shivakumar Udasi was trained by Udasi Sr in political tactics. It was also the father who had lobbied hard for him, when the BJP was scouting for an able candidate for Haveri parliamentary segment in 2009, after its incumbent MP Manjunath Kunnur defected to the Congress. CM Udasi was then a minister in the BS Yeddyurappa government.
Belonging to the Lingayat community, Shivakumar rode the pro-Yeddyurappa wave in the state. Though he had no political experience, he was elected for the first time to the Lok Sabha by defeating Saleem Ahmad of the Congress by over 87,000 votes. Since then, he has held the Haveri seat and in the 2019 election, he defeated senior Congress leader and four-time MLA D R Patil by a margin of over 1.4 lakh votes. Now, the caste dynamics has made Haveri a stronghold of the saffron party.
