BENGALURU: Pulakeshinagar constituency, formed after the 2008 delimitation, is a mixture of the old and new. You have streets, churches and eateries of the British Raj era and also IT firms and BPOs.
Considered a stronghold of Congress due to the Muslim and Christian communities forming the majority in four of the seven wards, the party had bagged five wards in the last civic elections. JD(S) and BJP were pushed to the bottom with just one ward each.
However, the constituency had sprung a surprise in 2013 with Akhanda Srinivas of JD(S) defeating Prasanna Kumar of Congress in the assembly election. Srinivas, who is trying to expand his base among the minorities, is bringing on JD(S) MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan to help in this cause.
But Congress with a heavy blitz attack from ministers Roshan Baig, K J George, senior leaders C M Ibrahim and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself is aiming for a clean sweep of all the wards. But it is set to face strong resistance from JD(S) in atleast two or three wards. The party also has to take note of the presence of MIM candidates this time in this constituency, which can split the Muslim votes.
JD(S) has fielded former hooch queen Marimuthu from Sagayapuram this time too realizing the vacuum in the ward after Congress denied ticket to its popular face Elumalai and gave it to Prabhakar Reddy,
Though Marimuthu had lost the 2010 election, JD(S) hopes that with no strong Congress candidate in the fray, her chances of winning are brighter.
Sagayapuram, a cluster of underdeveloped pockets, is primarily a votebank.
As the constituency boasts of linguistic and religious diversities, campaigns are being held in Tamil, Urdu, English and Kannada.
When you discuss the constituency, you can’t ignore Tannery Road, or its traffic bottlenecks and the slaughterhouse.
Residents say that their efforts to shift the slaughterhouse to the outskirts have proved futile.
Pulakeshinagar ward, the erstwhile Fraser Town, was one of the most posh localities in the east zone. However, as the area grew, it gave rise to haphazard development with slum pockets mushrooming. Still, it is the preferred locality due to its proximity to the city centre.
ward by ward: the major party candidates and the problems voters think their representative needs to address