Will ‘power shift’ from Mysuru slacken its growth?

May 20, 2018 11:22 pm | Updated 11:22 pm IST

Does the defeat of Siddaramaiah from Chamundeshwari constituency and the rout of the Congress paving way for the formation of a new coalition government in the State, signal the decline in political importance of Mysuru? That is the question doing the rounds in the city following the political developments.

For five years, Mysuru, being the home turf of the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, hogged political importance and was a beneficiary of sufficient funding released for the development of the region.

Developmental projects

As per Mr. Siddaramaiah’s own assessment, projects worth ₹5,000 crore were cleared for Mysuru over five years and have been either fully implemented or are in various stages of implementation.

This includes the Jayadeva Cardiology unit with a 350-bed hospital completed at a cost of ₹135 crore project; a new spacious complex to house the Maharani’s College; a new complex to house the Office of the Commissioner of Police; a new building to accommodate the Deputy Commissioner’s office; expansion of the existing roads and linking them to national highways as in the case of the Outer Ring Road; a new industrial estate at Adakanahalli near Tandya in Nanjangud; the completion of the four-laning of the Mysuru-Nanjangud Highway; a new district hospital; a state of the art trauma care centre; funding for road repair works under Chief Minister’s Special Grant, among others.

The slew of works taken up in Mysuru during the Congress regime led Mr. Siddaramaiah to stste that his contribution to the development of Mysuru was perhaps second only to that of the Maharajas. For this, he was trolled on social media by those espousing loyalty to the erstwhile royal family.

Political gravity

However, with H.D. Kumaraswamy set to take oath as the new Chief Minister and G. Parameshwar as the new Deputy CM, the centre of political gravity will shift away from Mysuru.

Though it is speculated that a few of JD(S) and Congress MLAs of the region will be accommodated in the yet to be constituted Cabinet, it is not the same as being the Chief Minister. Hence there are concerns that some of the existing projects can limp while new projects may be difficult to come by in the absence of strong political lobbying.

In addition to Mr. Siddaramaiah, H.C. Mahadevappa – who lost from the T. Narsipura constituency – was the PWD Minister in the previous government which provided political heft for Mysuru region, all of which will wane considerably.

35 year wait

Mysuru had to wait for almost 35 years after Devaraja Urs before producing a Chief Minister who was a native of the region. Though S.M. Krishna also has links with Mysuru, he was a native of Somanahalli in Maddur taluk of Mandya district. These concerns are relevant because despite Mysuru’s claims of being an important city next only to Bengaluru, it basks in its past glory and the contributions of the later Wadiyars.

In modern times, it has languished on the Human Development Index, infrastructure front, civic amenities, connectivity, etc, some of these issues being addressed only now. Nonetheless, whether the momentum will gain traction despite the decline in its political clout remains to be seen.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.