A three-time MLA, the city Mayor, a software engineer, and a rebel who jumped to another party: all eyes are on C.V. Raman Nagar constituency, where a four-way contest has made the race to the MLA seat a nail-biting one.
The segment comprises wards such as C.V. Raman Nagar, Jeevan Bima Nagar, Hoysala Nagar, Benniganahalli, and New Thippasandra. The voter demographic here is a mixed one with a large number of Defence and public sector undertakings, IT crowd, upscale localities such as Indiranagar as well as slums.
The poll battle began long before the nominations were filed as the Congress’s P. Ramesh, who lost the 2013 elections in the same constituency, started asserting his demand for another opportunity. Around the same time, speculation was rife that Minister for Public works H.C. Mahadevappa will be picked to contest from the SC reserved constituency.
In the end, it was Bengaluru Mayor R. Sampath Raj who was picked by the Congress to compete with S. Raghu, incumbent MLA. Mr. Raghu has had two consecutive terms in the same constituency. Mr. Ramesh stuck to his promise to rebel against the Congress, and is now contesting on Janata Dal (Secular) ticket.
Unfazed by battle
Mr. Raghu remains unfazed by the battle he has on his hands. “All of them are outsiders to the constituency. People will vote for us based on the work we have done with sincerity for the last 10 years. Work has suffered since 2013 as the Congress government exercised bias in fund allocation to constituencies with BJP MLAs. There is no anti-incumbency and people will now rate us on our work,” he said.
Mr. Sampath Raj, though, said his entry into the State Assembly as an MLA was imminent. “I will win by a margin of at least 20,000 votes. People have seen my work as Mayor. Mr. Raghu has not held any administrative post and I, as Mayor, can manage multiple constituencies. This is a small battle for me,” he said, also taking a jibe at Mr. Ramesh for having deflected to another party.
But Mr. Ramesh said the contest had become “one-sided” as supporters of both the BJP and Congress had deserted them for the JD(S), which found new visibility this time.
The fourth claimant to the MLA’s chair in the constituency, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mohan Dasari, has taken a four-month break from his IT job to contest the polls (his third). He said the fight was directly between him and the incumbent MLA.
“The Congress and JD(S) candidates will get limited number of votes. We have been campaigning here since last November. Though C.V. Raman Nagar is seen as a posh constituency, there is no equal development. There are bad roads, unethical commercialisation, and water supply issues,” he said, adding that the constituency was ready for an alternative party, as was seen during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when AAP got 9,000 votes from C.V. Raman Nagar. “The constituency mainly comprises of the salaried class, and being one myself, I understand their issues,” he said.
