Congress veteran Roshan Baig’s personal contact and frequent interaction with the voters might help him retain his seat as MLA of Shivajinagar constituency.
Though there are a few other candidates in the fray, the fight is directly between Baig and Nirmal Surana of BJP. The constituency has a large number of Muslim and Tamil-speaking voters and the BJP is not very popular among both communities.
By fielding an outsider, Abbas Ali Bhora, the JD(S) has helped Roshan Baig’s cause as most of the people in the constituency do not know Bhora and some of them had not even heard of his name till he was fielded to contest the elections.
Nirmal Surana, who was elected in 2004 to the assembly from the erstwhile Bharatinagar assembly constituency, has considerable following in and around Vasanthnagar and Sampangiramnagar. Surana’s efforts to make some inroads into the other areas of the constituency has met with limited success. Though Surana has not managed to convince the voters in Shivajinagar, he has managed to make his presence felt in areas like Bharathinagar and Ulsoor, where the BJP had very little following till now.
Surana’s hard work and campaign over the last few months might not match Roshan Baig’s continuous contact with the voters. Even in the areas that have potholed roads and heaps of garbage lying around, people say they will vote for Baig.
Anbu, a shopkeeper in Shivajinagar said, “I am comfortable speaking to Baig as he speaks to me in Tamil and makes me feel important. He has attended to our problems whenever we have approached him.”
According to sources, the merchants of Russell Market felt that Baig had deserted them by not coming to their aid after the market caught fire and were planning to campaign against him till recently.
Just a couple of months ago, Baig personally visited the market and convinced the merchants to stay with him. He also got electricity connection restored to the market. Baig is likely to retain his seat unless something extraordinary happens.