Sprawling constituency, big issues

One of the largest in terms of area, the Bengaluru South constituency is sprawled between Uttarahalli and Electronics City and has 6.10 lakh voters.

Land grabbing, polluted lakes and lack of basic amenities dog the constituency, which has a strong Vokkaliga vote bank. Despite the odds, MLA M Krishnappa from the BJP has managed to retain his seat since 2008.

But local residents say there has not been any development work. And there are those like Mohana Gowda, secretary of the Bharath Housing Cooperative Society located in Turahalli, who say they have not seen the MLA in the past five years.

“There are no roads to commute to our society, which has around 100 houses and over 400 voters.

The local corporator said our votes don’t matter. The MLA must have a strong vote bank of his own by which he is winning despite not carrying out any development work,” Gowda added.

A significant part of this constituency fell into the 110 erstwhile gram panchayats. Perched on the fringe of the city, most localities here do not have drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Most places have functioning borewells that partly address the water issue, though tankers frequent the streets. The government-installed RO are also quenching the parched throats of the residents.

With no underground drainage, sewage is allowed into the lakes through stormwater drains.

‘He’s fooling the masses’

JD(S) candidate R Prabhakar Reddy, who lost to the incumbent Krishnappa by 30,000 odd votes in 2013, says the saffron man would be ousted this time. “He has done nothing. He has been winning with caste-based votes and fooling people,” he said.

Congress candidate R K Ramesh, a former president of Bangalore Dairy, said people need a change.

“Tejaswini Gowda (currently in BNP) had contested from here in 2013. Due to some differences, the Congress could not win, but we have a chance this time,” he said.

Shobha Gowda, Congress corporator from Vasanthapura in Bengaluru South, said the MLA attends to the problems, but is conspicuous in his absence when it comes to execution. Begur Corporator M Anjinappa said the MLA is not cooperative when it comes to development work despite meeting him several times.

Krishnappa, for his part, asserts that he is the most approachable of MLAs and is toiling for the constituency’s development. “I’ve spent over Rs 42 crore to develop the eight wards in the constituency through funds allocated for MLAs are less,” he said.

“I have ensured roads are asphalted despite the constituency being part of the 110 villages. Sanitary lines will also be laid shortly,” the BJP candidate said.