KANAKAPURA(RAMANAGARA DISTRICT): Kanakapura in Ramanagara may be the political stronghold of Congress’ DK brothers, who have held sway whether it is the Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. But in this Gram Panchayat election, the tide seems to be in favour of the saffron party, which hopes to win at least one or two seats in each Gram Panchayat.
Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagara district has 43 Gram Panchayats and all of them are facing the polls in the first phase on December 22. Though Congress has an upper hand, a section of villagers, especially those in the age group of 30 to 40, are in favour of BJP. Even the rebels, who did not get the support of Congress or JDS and contesting as independents are leaning towards BJP.
In an election strategy that it has perfected over the last few years, the saffron party started working on the ground much before the polls were announced, and distributed pamphlets highlighting the achievements of State and Central governments. Before it was made part of the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, Kanakapura was an independent parliamentary segment, which included Kanakapura Assembly seat.
It has a halloed legacy as it revived the political fortunes of former prime minister H D Devegowda in the 2002 Lok Sabha bypolls and that of former chief minister late Ramakrishna Hegde in the 1983 Assembly bypolls. “We at Kanakapura have seen only Congress and JDS ruling here. The straight fight has always been between the two parties. But this time, it looks like BJP will open its account.
It may not come to power or get hold of an entire Panchayat, but it will win two to three seats in each panchayat for sure,” said Nagegowda from Kallahalli Gram Panchayat. Venkatesha, a loyal JDS supporter, said he is done with JDS as the party has not recognised the efforts of grassroots workers at the Thungani Gram Panchayat. “BJP is in power at both Centre and State. If we get the BJP in the panchayat, funds will flow to our village easily. At Least we can see some development,” he reasoned.
Voters at Kaggalli, Chikkamuduvaadi, Budiguppe, Cheeluru and other panchayats too expressed a similar sentiment. “Over the last two years, small farmers who own less than five acres are getting Rs 2,000 once in two months. We are getting some money from the Modi government. We did not have any such facility when either Congress or JDS was in power,” pointed out Shivarudregowda from Kaggalli.
Achhalu Doddi, which is on the Ramanagara-Kanakapura connecting road, has around 120 voters staying in 38 huts. “We have been in the same condition for the last five to six decades. As we don’t have toilets, we defecate openly. We do get the attention of VIPs passing through this road. Deve Gowda, his son H D Kumaraswamy, Anitha Kumaraswamy, D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh all take this road regularly. They do stop here and listen to our woes.
Our main demand is over right deeds, but nothing has been done,” said a resident. “Now, we will try candidates with BJP support, hoping for some relief as they are in power in the state and Centre,’’ he added. For the first time In 2019, BJP won a seat in Kanakapura Municipality election, setting off a snowballing trend.
GP seat auction: 10 people to be deported
Tumakuru: Tumakuru police have booked cases in connection with 11 incidents wherein gram panchayat seats were auctioned. They have now said that the 10 people involved be deported. “The assistant commissioners concerned will take further action in this regard,” said Superintendent of Police Dr Kona Vamsi Krishna. “The accused had also violated the model election code of conduct,” he added. Kunigal DySP Jagadeesh said that some of the accused, Nagaraju, Jayaramaiah, Ranganath, and Manjunath, had organised the auctioning of the seat that falls under Kittanamangala Gram Panchayat last week and a video of the incident had gone viral. In almost all the cases, the accused were raising funds on the pretext of renovating village temples and had ensured those who bid with the highest amount get elected unanimously.