Bengaluru: Basavanagudi assembly constituency in Bengaluru South is an important constituency where most of the voters are literates. The constituency is known for well-known temples and eateries. Groundnut festival (Kadalekaye Parishe) is one of the famous events that take place in this constituency.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates won four times and Congress candidates won four times in the elections from this constituency since 1957. Former chief minister late Ramakrishna Hegde got elected twice – 1985 and 1989 – from this assembly segment by defeating K M Nagaraj of Congress in 1985 by a huge margin 42,780 votes. Hegde again defeated Congress candidate Haranahalli Ramaswamy in 1989 by a margin of 8,418 votes.
BJP candidates H N Nanje Gowda and K N Subba Reddy won from this segment in 1994 and 1999 by a huge majority of votes. While Gowda polled 40,013 votes, Congress candidate Vajramuni got only 23,077 votes in 1994. Subba Reddy got 41,430 votes while Congress candidate K.M. Nagaraj polled 26,086 votes in 1999. However, Congress candidate Chandrasekhar K of Congress defeated BJP candidate Subba Reddy in 2004 by 8,230 votes. Later, BJP candidate Ravi Subramanya L.A. succeeded in defeating Congress candidates K Chandrasekhar in 2008 and K. Bage Gowda in 2013.
According to voters of Basavanagudi, BJP incumbent is very proactive in listening to public grievances and fixing civic and infrastructure-related issues without any delay.
“I am very happy with the performance of Ravi Subramanya as an elected representative. He has solved the drinking water supply problem. I find no reason why voters should not elect him again from this constituency,’’ says Manjunatha Sharma, a resident of Basavanagudi.
The advantage for Ravi Subramanya is the support and guidance of Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar. The other advantage is all wards – six – in Basavanagudi assembly segment are represented by BJP corporators in the Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) Council.
“Cleaning of garbage is yet to be addressed effectively but I am hopeful of MLA fixing this issue without any problems since corporator also belong to same party (BJP). Traffic movement on Gandhibazar is a cause of concern. I want our MLA to address this problem. Attempts were made to construct a market for vendors, who occupy footpath on Gandhi Bazar thus causing inconvenience to the pedestrians, but in vain. It will be a great relief and help for pedestrians if the authorities take measures to shift the vendors to another place,’’ Soubhagya Lakshmi, a home-maker, said.
There are 2,21,792 voters in Basavanagudi Assembly segment and among them, 1,14,750 are male voters while 1,07,009 are women and 33 are others. The number of voters may go up by the time of Assembly elections in 2018.
Meanwhile, MLA Ravi Subramanya was not available for comment.
All in all, BJP is set for a hat-trick in the next Assembly elections scheduled for April/May 2018 if Congress fails to find a suitable candidate who is not only popular in the constituency but also has the much-needed resources.
