Not to be left behind in the democratic election process, Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda arrived here to his Home Town on Sunday morning to cast his vote in the election to Karnataka Legislative Council from South-West Graduates' Constituency.
After voting in the polling station set up in the Puttur Taluk Panchayat office complex, Mr. Gowda, whose name featured as voter 497 in the list, said: “My name is in the voter list in Puttur, and I've come here to vote for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) candidate D.H. Shankaramurthy.”
Addressing the press and BJP workers in the party office in Puttur, the Chief Minister expressed confidence of the ruling party winning all six seats of teachers' and graduates' constituencies in the State.
“During canvassing, I had travelled all over the State covering places like Mysore, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Shimoga and so on and have seen overwhelming support from the teachers there. The candidates and the Government have been doing a lot of work in the education sector, and those voting today will recognise this,” he said.
He added that the increased budgetary allocation for the educational sector in the State, which currently stands at over Rs. 15,000 crore will yield results in the elections.
Mocking the process of selection of candidates in other parties, Mr. Gowda said: “Even though the BJP has its differences, we have worked together to ensure the right six candidates are chosen. Whereas, while Siddaramaiah (Leader of Congress Legislature Party) said he will resign if his candidate is not chosen, a JD(S) MLC has sent his resignation over the selection of candidates. We have had no problems like this.”
About the opposition to the Government's proposal to introduce English-medium in its schools from class 6 onwards, Mr. Gowda said this opposition was hypocrisy. “While they oppose the teaching of English, they continue to send their children to English-medium schools. Why aren't they instead asking for Kannada to be made compulsory in all schools, which the Government has been trying to enforce,” he said.
Defending the proposal, he said the idea of teaching English in Government schools was to equal the playing field when the students vie for employment.
