No sight of women candidates in Dasarahalli constituency

Fifty per cent of the seats in the upcoming elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) may have been reserved for women, but some female candidates are not seen at all, particularly in the Dasarahalli Assembly constituency.

Five wards of this constituency are reserved for women; and candidates from the three main political parties - BJP, Congress and JD(S) - are not seen campaigning on ground.
Instead, their husbands, in-laws, brothers or party workers were doing the rounds during the busy weekend, seeking votes.

Many voters say that they have not seen the candidates. “The pamphlets given to us have the photographs of a woman  candidate from Congress. Party workers approached us and showed us the candidate’s photograph on the pamphlet. They told us to vote for her and remember the Congress symbol. They also told us to read the pamphlet to know about the candidate. We could not ask or say anything as there was lot of crowd,” said Siddappa, a resident of T Dasarahalli ward.

Same was case at Rajagopala Nagar. Kantha L, a resident said that the dwellers were being greeted by the family members of the candidates. “I have met the husband, brother and father in- law of BJP and JD(S) candidate, but not the candidate. It does not matter as the area will continue to remain a mess and I will not be voting for anybody.”

Husband’s address
“I do not know who the candidates are. The BJP candidate’s husband came and addressed us. Incase of JD(S) and Congress, only the party workers came. Only one lady has been doing the rounds. We have only met Savitha Mahesh Gowda, and she is an independent
candidate,” said Ishwarappa, a resident of the Hegganahalli ward.

The BJP female candidates contesting from this constituency are - Umadevi Nagaraj (T Dasarahalli ward), Sarvamanagala Nagaraj (Chokka- sandra ward), Kala Andanappa (Peenya Industrial Area), Anitha Suresh (Rajagopala Nagar ward) and Bhagyamma Krishnaya (Hegganahalli ward).

The Congress female candidates are - Uma Salma (T Dasarahalli ward), Roopa Jagadish (Chokkasandra ward), Lalitha Thimmananjayya (Peenya Industrial area ward), H Usha Gowda (Rajagopala nagar ward) and L Vanajakshi Srinivas (Hegganahalli ward).
The JD(S) female candidates are - Devika Soundarya (T Dasarahalli), Lakshmamma Muniswamy (Chokkasandra), Latha Ramesh (Peenya Industrial Area), Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy (Rajagopala Nagar) and Varalakshmi Govindegowda (Hegganahalli).