Bengaluru: It may not be an exaggeration to say Govindarajanagar is the one and only Assembly constituency in Bengaluru to have an affluent elected representative. Govindarajanagar is adjacent to Vijayanagar Assembly constituency. While Priyakrishna of Congress represents Govindarajanagar, his father M Krishnappa, who holds housing portfolio, represents Vijayanagar in the State Legislative Assembly.
These two constituencies happened to be in the limelight for all wrong reasons. Let it be a poster war between Congress and BJP leaders on the occasion of their birthdays or the unpleasant scene created at an inaugural function of an underpass, the main political parties vie with each other to indulge in mudslinging at every available opportunity.
“It is quite amusing to see both the political parties focusing on petty issues instead of taking up developmental works. The underpass was delayed for many months due to petty politics between the local corporator and the MLA. We are yet to forget the ugly scenes created by the corporator’s supporters and the MLA’s supporters while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other dignitaries were on the dais,’’ opines Krishna Gowda, a resident of Karnataka Housing Board Colony.
Many voters in this assembly constituency are happy with the performance of their elected representative. “Priyakrishna has played a key role in getting the much-needed underpass near the Toll Gate. I never come across the MLA demanding money from public who go to him seeking favour. He has taken up many developmental works in Govindarajanagar segment,’’ says Jagadish Gowda, a resident of Govindarajanagar.
It is not that there were no complaints against Priyakrishna. H C Prakash, an activist had filed a private complaint in December 2012 with the Lokayukta against Priyakrishna and his father M Krishnappa alleging that they had amassed wealth to the tune of 10,000 percent of their known sources of income. But the Lokayukta special court accepted the police report as a B-report, which means that the case is closed due to lack of evidence and no case being able to be made out of it.
There are 2,60,841 voters in Govindarajanagar Assembly constituency that has nine BBMP wards. Among the voters, 1,37,607 are men while 1,23,186 are women and 48 others.
Interestingly, Priyakrishna has managed to improve not only the margin of votes but also total number of votes polled in 2009 and 2013. While Priyakrishna has defeated his nearest rival V Somanna of BJP by a margin of 5,239 votes in 2009, the margin of votes increased to 42,460 against H Ravindra of BJP in 2013. Priyakrishna polled 64,176 votes in 2009 (by-election) while Somanna managed to get 58,937 votes. With BJP selecting H Ravindra as its candidate in 2013, it became easy for Priyakrishna to romp home with a huge majority. Priyakrishna polled 72,654 votes while Ravindra got only 30,194 votes. Interestingly, V Somanna was Congress candidate in 2008 and had defeated his nearest rival R Ravindra of BJP by a margin of 24,362 votes. Later, Somanna had to resign after defecting to BJP from Congress. He contested as BJP candidate in the by-election. He managed to poll more than 4,000 votes in the by-election but failed to defeat the formidable Congress candidate Priyakrishna.
There are nine corporators representing this assembly constituency in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council. Congress corporators represent only two wards–Dr. Rajkumar and Nayandahalli–while JDS represents only one ward–but BJP represents six wards.
All in all, the Congress candidate will have no hassles to achieve a hat-trick from Govindarajanagar Assembly segment in 2018.
