The Hindu : Karnataka / Bidar News : Elections in Bidar were bereft of issues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bidar

Elections in Bidar were bereft of issues

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIDAR, APRIL 23. The elections, at least in Bidar district, were bereft of issues concerning the people this time. That explains why campaigning by all political parties remained a low-key affair. The backwardness of the district, lack of industries and the resulting low potential for employment generation, heavy dependence of the population (89 per cent) on agriculture, leading to each worker getting just 200 days of employment in a year or the paradox of not having an irrigation project, were not considered by any candidate in the Lok Sabha elections to be worthy of even making promises.

While the BJP's grand old man, Ramachandra Veerappa, asked voters to help him set a world record of celebrating his 100th birthday in Parliament, his supporters went door-to-door reminding people of his "harmless-humble politician'' image. Neither did they nor the people could recollect what he had done for the constituency. They did even know what he planned to do if elected.

A three-time MP and Congress candidate, Narasingrao Suryavanshi, whose reported proximity to the Nehru-Gandhi family helped him get the party ticket despite opposition from the local leaders, was busy explaining how the Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance in neighbouring Maharashtra would benefit the party's chances in Bidar. He presented his roadmap for the development of the district only on a few occasions during his campaigning.

A former IPS officer and Janata Dal (Secular) candidate, Motiram Choudhary, started his campaigning by blaming Mr. Veerappa and Mr. Suryavanshi for their failure to contribute to the development of the district. But it seemed that the initial steam was lost towards the end of his campaigning.

As for Assembly candidates, most of them spent precious hours on the stage, raising issues of personal prestige than those concerning the people.

The former Minister, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, and the former MLA, Gundappa Vakil, viewed the elections as a platform to settle personal scores in Aurad, and similar was the case in Bhalki which saw the clash of the cousins, Ishwar Khandre of the Congress and Prakash Khandre of the BJP.

A former Minister and four-time MLA, Basavraj Patil Attoor, who contested as an independent candidate from Basavkalyan, was driven to tears by the way the Janata Dal(S) had treated a man like him "who built the party from scratch'' in this part of the State. During his speeches which were full of criticism against the Janata Dal(S) and its President, H.D. Deve Gowda, he found little time to list reasons why he should be elected.

The Congress nominee from Humnabad, Rajshekar Patil, and his father, the Minister of State for Energy, Basavraj Patil Humnabad, wasted no time in describing the Janata Dal(S) candidate, Mirajuddin Patel, as a man who had issued a cheque that bounced.

They also said that he was incapable of fulfilling his promise of starting a cooperative sugar factory in that taluk.

Babu Honna Nayak, independent candidate from Hulsoor (SC) seat and a lieutenant of Mr. Attoor, led a tirade against the member of the previous Assembly, Rajendra Verma, who, he alleged, had instigated Dalits to file false cases of atrocities against the upper castes in the area.

He also supported two rasta rokos against the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Few candidates saw the nearly non-existent roads and the severe scarcity of drinking water in the constituency.

Interestingly, it seemed that the candidates had convinced the voters that the issues concerning them were those listed by the candidates and not mitigating hunger and poverty.

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