CHITRADURGA: The BJP seems to be planning well ahead for the 2023 Assembly polls and the 2024 Parliamentary polls if the representation given to communities and regions in Wednesday’s reshuffle of the Narendra Modi cabinet is anything to go by. The induction of Anekal Abbaiah Narayanaswamy, representing Chitradurga (Central Karnataka), Shobha Karandlaje (Coastal and Malnad regions), Bhagwant Khubha (Kalyana Karnataka), and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (South Karnataka) clearly point to the party’s long-term strategy to take on the Congress in Karnataka and its leader Siddaramaiah, who is eyeing a comeback in the next elections.
Though he hails from Anekal in Bengaluru Rural district and represented the constituency four times from 1998 to 2013, the 64-year-old was picked for the Chitradurga Lok Sabha seat for the first time in 2019. As MP, Narayaswamy has been on the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Standing Committee on Water Resources and the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
A non-controversial politician, he fast-tracked pending projects in Chitradurga and Tumkuru districts after he became MP. His major contribution to Chitradurga has been bringing the Upper Bhadra waters to Vanivilas Sagar dam. He was also instrumental in the constitution of the Justice A J Sadashiva Commission to look into internal reservation for the Madiga community, which is before the government.
A SC leader from the Madiga (Left) community, A Narayanaswamy was cabinet minister for Social Welfare under three BJP CMs — BS Yediyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, and Jagadish Shettar — between 2010 and 2013, and commands respect from his community, which constitutes the largest group among the Scheduled Castes in Karnataka. During his first tenure as MLA, he was Chief Whip of the BJP legislature party till 1999.
Speaking to TNIE from New Delhi, Narayanaswamy said that he will ensure that all the pending projects in Karnataka are expedited. Priority will be to get national project status for the Upper Bhadra project, speeding up of the Tumkuru-Davanagere direct railway line among others. “I am happy to work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to whom the country comes first and has been working relentlessly to make the country a Vishwa Guru,” he said.An entrepreneur and a social worker who has been in public life for more than three decades, Narayanaswamy is a graduate from the Government Arts College Bengaluru.
A Narayanaswamy (64) - Anekal
1st term MP representing Chitradurga
Elected 4 times as MLA, has served as minister too
Prominent SC face handpicked by Shah for 2019 Lok Sabha polls
Bachelor of Arts from Government Arts College, Bengaluru