The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Hat-trick hopeful Veerappa Moily may have it tough this time

    Synopsis

    Moily is now seeking to do a hat-trick like his predecessors RL Jalappa and Krishna Rao. It is not easy for Moily though this time around.

    Veerappa-Moily-bccl
    In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Moily sold voters a dream that he will bring copious water to the arid region by having water from the river Nethravathi lifted, diverted and transported 300 km via canals.
    CHIKKABALLAPUR: In April 2009, when the Congress shifted former chief minister M Veerappa Moily from his native Mangaluru seat in coastal Karnataka to Chikkaballapur near Bengaluru, one was not sure how the local voters would take it. His Kannada was vastly different from the way they spoke the language. Cultural connect was also an issue.

    The big source of comfort for the Congress, however, was it had almost always been invincible here so much so that V Krishna Rao, a Brahmin, had won thrice. India’s third-busiest international airport, Bengaluru, as well as Amazon’s warehouses, to just name a few, are part of Chikkaballapur district. Moily is now seeking to do a hat-trick like his predecessors RL Jalappa and Krishna Rao. It is not easy for Moily though this time around.

    This constituency — with about 18 lakh voters from some grape-growing areas, industrial townships in Bengaluru Rural district and dairy-farming areas in Chikkaballapur district — is wrestling with severe shortage of water.

    In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Moily sold voters a dream that he will bring copious water to the arid region by having water from the river Nethravathi lifted, diverted and transported 300 km via canals. The villages are still waiting for the first drop from Nethravathi.

    As far as water goes, the clock has not moved much. The region has been battling drought for the 14th year in a row. “Our MP is serious about the (Yettinahole) project, but can’t do it overnight. The foundation was laid in 2014 and the work is in progress. We will see the trial run soon,” said KN Keshava Reddy, president of the district Congress committee.

    While water is still an issue, elections are largely fought on caste calculations and this election is no different. BN Bache Gowda, a veteran Vokkaliga leader who was a minister in both the Janata Dal and the BJP regimes before, is fighting as a BJP candidate. Moily’s JD(S) rival in the previous LS polls, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, is absent from the fray, and as per the seat-sharing deal between the JD(S) and the Congress, Moily can count on JD(S) support.

    If one goes by sheer mathematics, the odds appear to be stacked against the BJP. One: The Congress holds five out of eight Assembly seats in the constituency, while the JD(S) holds two. But realpolitik presents a starkly different picture. The BSP has fielded former Backward Commission chairman CS Dwarakanath from the Balija community. The BSP is testing the waters here and in the process may end up wrecking Moily’s votes. Though the constituency is dominated by Vokkaligas, with about 4 lakh votes, it has about 5.75 lakh SC/ST voters, 1.2 lakh Kuruba voters and 1.5 lakh each of OBC and Balija voters. The BSP commands its own vote base, including those of educated SC/ST voters.

    The BJP is banking on three factors: a Modi wave, the Vokkaliga votes and sympathy from voters for Bache Gowda, who is 77 years old, and has been handed out defeat before. “Gowda lost by a narrow margin last time. It hurt the BJP supporters who now want him elected at any cost,” said Sachidananda Murthy, BJP’s Chikkaballapur incharge.


    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more

    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in