V. Narayana Swamy, Janata Dal (Secular) candidate RR NAGAR, Bengaluru.
With a whopping 4.78 lakh voters, the Rajarajeshwarinagar (R.R. Nagar) Assembly constituency is one among those in the city that has the highest number of voters.
In the last two elections (2013 and 2018), the incumbent MLA and Minister in the State cabinet, Munirathna won as a candidate from the Congress. However, in 2019, Munirathna shifted his loyalty to BJP with 16 other MLAs of Congress and JD(S), resulting in the fall of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led JD(S) and Congress coalition government.
In 2020, the constituency went for byelections. Munirathna, who contested from the BJP ticket, defeated Kusuma H. from Congress with a margin of over 50,000 votes. Subsequently, in 2021 he became a Minister in the cabinet of the Basavaraj Bommai government.
Munirathna, a film producer-turned-politician, was embroiled in several controversies in the past. In 2018, police filed an FIR against him and several others following the seizures of thousands of voter IDs in the apartment.
The BJP had accused him of derailing free and fair elections. The incident also forced the Election Commission to defer the elections. In the elections, Munirathna defeated Muniraju Gowda of the BJP. Last year, the Karnataka State Contractors Association had levelled corruption charges against him, dismissing which the minister had filed a defamation case against the office bearers of the association. Recently, police filed an FIR against him for alleged hate speech.
Strong contender
In this election, Congress has again fielded Kusuma against Munirathna. JD(S) has fielded Dr. V. Narayanaswamy. It is said that D.K. Shivakumar and D.K. Suresh have taken this election as a prestige battle and want to teach a lesson to Munirathna for defecting from the party and playing a role in the collapse of the coalition government. On the other hand, Munirathna has downplayed the candidature of Kusuma and said that his close contender in these elections is from JD(S) and not the Congress.
Residents of the constituency say that over the years, impetus has been given to improve the road infrastructure in the areas coming under the constituency. However, issues such as poor drainage systems in low-lying areas, traffic congestion on inner roads connecting major roads, irregular supply of drinking water, garbage collection remain concerns.
