A winner all the way
Unbeaten
M C Jayakumari Sonnappa is probably the only candidate in Karnataka who has been contesting and winning all Zilla Panchayat elections, since the Panchayat Raj system came into existence in the state.
Right from 1986, when the first Zilla Parishat elections were held, this veteran has contested all four elections and won in Hoskote Taluk. She is now testing her electoral fortunes for the fifth time.
Jayakumari has contested from three different constituencies throughout her electoral journey. In 1986, she won from Jadagenahalli Hobli, in 1992, she won from Doddagattinganabbe. For the next term, she moved to Anugondanahalli and for the fourth term she again contested from Doddagattiganabbe.
In her fifth effort now, she is back in the fray in Anugondanahalli as the BJP candidate. She has been a follower of Minister B N Bache Gowda, all through her career. All these years, she had contested as a JD(S) candidate.
With Bachche Gowda switching sides to the BJP, she too joined the saffron party. At present, she is the president of the Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat, whose term expires in January 2011. As and when the reservation of constituencies changed, Jayakumari too had to change her constituency.
Many leaders who began their political career in the Zilla Panchayat, along with Jayakumari, have risen to high positions in politics. Former minister D K Shivakumar, who was Jayakumari’s colleague in Bangalore Rural ZP in 1986, has been an MLA for five terms. But Jayakumari never had a chance to contest the Assembly polls.
“Bachche Gowda is my leader. When he is contesting as MLA, I don’t have an opportunity. Moreover, I don’t have plans to compete with him for a ticket in the Assembly elections,” she said. Jayakumari, who has studied upto SSLC, entered politics when she was 30.
Her husband T Sonnappa had been into politics. He was once president of the Hoskote Taluk Agri Produce Marketing Cooperative Society. Asked whether she enjoyed freedom as a member, Jayakumari said Sonnappa’s family members never attempted to influence her in administrative matters. “My family members came to my office on the day I assumed charge as ZP president. After that, none of them came to my office,” she said.
Jayakumari said that over the years, the powers enjoyed by the rural bodies had reduced. When the Panchayat Raj Act 1983 came into effect in 1986, the post of the president of the ZP was equivalent to a minister of state. The panchayat bodies had powers to recruit lower rank officers (group C and D). But those powers are no more with the ZPs, though allocation of grants to these rural bodies have gone up over the years, she said.
