RAMANAGARA: The 63-year-old Lakshmamma from Abbanakuppe village in Ramanagara stays just 7 km away from the much-hyped Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway, but she has never seen it so far. She rolls fabric tapes for a nearby factory in Bidadi and earns a meagre Rs 100 a day. “All I wanted was drinking water which our MLA provided and we never wanted the Expressway,” she says.
Abbanakuppe falls under the Magadi Assembly constituency in Ramanagara district, represented by JDS MLA A Manjunath.
Byrava, her neighbour, says the Expressway is good, but it is not helping them in any way. “We did not ask them for this road. Basic amenities are taken care of by our MLA. He is the one who is available for our needs, neither (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) Modi nor (Mysuru MP) Pratap Simha will come if we call,” he says.
The Expressway has been widely appreciated, but not by the locals. People from hundreds of villages in Ramanagara and Mandya districts that are situated next to the Expressway say it has only inconvenienced them. The Expressway may not help BJP in the Assembly elections, despite it being their dream project, inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi with much fanfare.
Ramanagara has four Assembly segments, three of which are represented by JDS and Kanakapura by KPCC president DK Shivakumar. The same trend is expected in this poll too.
Madegowda, a dairy farmer, is all praise for JDS senior leader HD Kumaraswamy. “We depend on cattle for our livelihood. I have two daughters who studied engineering and then MBA. With the society loan waived off during the Kumaraswamy government, I made little earnings and ensured that my daughters are self-reliant. Till my death, I will vote for JDS,” he vouches.
Rajesh from Kempanahalli too has high praise for JDS. “Let BJP construct the Expressway, but it makes no difference to us. Our roads are asphalted and we will vote for JDS. BJP cannot make inroads here,” he says.
In Channapatna, thousands of artists and workers have depended on wooden toys for their living for the last many decades. Eshwar Raj, who owns Shree factory, says 20 mega toy showrooms lined up the highway between Channapatna and Maddur earlier. Now, many are shut as the earlier highway is not used by many anymore. “The Expressway has literally killed our livelihood. We have a JDS MLA here, and the BJP government in the state. Because of that, the toy cluster was moved to Koppal. The BJP government should have set up the cluster here. Then, the Expressway would not have impacted us so badly,” he says.
In 2018, Kumaraswamy contested from Channapatna and won getting 46.55 per cent of votes. Then comes Mandya, which has seven Assembly constituencies. Of them, except KR Pet, all are represented by JDS. The Expressway passes through Maddur, Mandya and Srirangapatna, and all of them are represented by JDS.
Krishna, a farmer, from Vaddaradoddi says his house is near Nidaghatta, while his farm at Vaddaradoddi, which are just a few metres apart. But the Expressway has come in between. “Earlier, we could walk between our farm and house and reach within minutes. With the Expressway, we have to take a roundabout of 4 km. When the BengaluruMysuru highway was built, land prices had shot up. But with the Expressway and no proper road connectivity from the main road, people are not willing to buy land here anymore,” he says. The fight is between Congress and JDS here.
Mandya city too has a JDS MLA, but BJP stands a chance, says Shivanand, an auto driver. According to him, there are no proper industries here other than MySugar, which is on the verge of revival. “We don’t want a farm loan waiver, but we want a better support price for crops and nominal fertiliser prices. People want to give a chance to BJP this time, but the Expressway is not the reason” he adds.