Vijayanagar district: A decade-long struggle comes to fruition

The residents of Hosapete and several west taluks of Ballari district are seeing the demand for separate Vijayanagar district finally taking shape after a decade-long struggle.

The Karnataka Cabinet on Wednesday gave its in-principle approval for carving a new Vijayanagar district out of Ballari. Vijayanagar, if everything works out fine, will be the 31st district of Karnataka.

Hosapete and west taluks (of Ballari) erupted in joy after learning the Cabinet decision. Social media was abuzz with discussions about the new district and its constituent
taluks.

In fact, the demand for the new Vijayanagar district dates back to 2007, when the newly coined Vijayanagar Zilla Horata Samithi went big with a campaign for a new district. Three months later the agitation lost its steam and soon it turned into a dormant campaign. In the subsequent years the struggle was limited to submitting memoranda to successive governments.

The struggle, however, gained steam in 2019. Anand Singh, who was elected on Congress ticket in 2018, quit as MLA and joined the BJP with a condition that Vijaynagar be made a district. The BJP was then struggling to muster numbers to form government,

Anand Singh fought the bypolls on Vijayanagar district issue and had it easy. Right after the byelection, Anand Singh led a delegation to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa demanding the creation of a new district. Yediyurappa responded by moving a note to the chief secretary on carving out Vijayanagar district from Ballari.

The new district issue did not make any further progress after the BJP legislators from Ballari, led by Somashekar Reddy sternly opposed the move.

Finally, the BJP-led state government on Wednesday set the ball rolling for carving out Vijayanagar district from Ballari.

Of the 11 taluks in Ballari district, four west taluks - Hagaribommanahalli, Kottur, Hadagali and Harapanahalli - will join Kampli and Hosapete to constitute the new Vijayanagar district.