GULBARGA: With just a day left for the voting to the post of president, vice-president and managing council members of the Hyderabad-Karnataka Education Society (HKES) scheduled to be held on Thursday, the main contenders — the former two-time president Basavaraj Bhimalli and society vice-president and BJP MLC, Shashil G. Namoshi — are doing everything to turn the tide in their favour by taking up intensive door-to-door campaign.

Although R.H. Purantagi is also in the race for the post of president, the contest appears to be between Mr. Bhimalli and Mr. Namoshi.

While Sharanappa Giri, who commands respect among voters, is contesting for the post of vice-president from Mr. Bhimalli's panel, industrialist B.G. Patil is his counterpart from Mr. Namoshi's panel. While the panel of Mr. Bhimalli has many new faces, Mr. Namoshi has chosen the time-tested combination of managing council members and past members of the council except for R.C. Dhotre, Sharnabasappa Nisty, and Vishwanath Reddy B. Itagi.

Voter's anger

There is considerable anger among voters, particularly society staff against the style of functioning of the outgoing president B.G. Jawali, who ruled the society with an iron hand. Mr. Namoshi, who was vice-president of the society under Dr. Jawali, carries the legacy of the previous regime. Although the previous regime was successful in getting the approval of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for admission of 100 students in the undergraduate medical courses. There has been some resentment against the outgoing body, particularly Dr. Jawali.

Anti-incumbency factor

An anti-incumbency factor is visible among the voters, and the elections are likely to throw surprise results opening the doors for the new faces to take control of the society.

Although the medical college run by the society has been put on a path of recovery, the situation in the dental college is bad with most of the posts remaining vacant for many months and the college losing most of the postgraduate seats for want of teachers and other facilities. Mr. Bhimalli, who had occupied the post of society president twice, got a taste of the voters' anger for not taking up development activities during his tenure. Mr. Bhimalli, who lost the elections by a narrow margin of 90-odd votes in the previous election, is working hard to win back the confidence of 1,049 voters in society and make a comeback. On paper, the Namoshi camp appears strong, but the ground reality is that it will be an uphill task for the group to overcome the challenge posed by the Bhimalli camp.

Promises

The promise made by Mr. Bhimalli to open membership at least to the families of members who had died is catching the imagination of voters.

Mr. Namoshi has made a promise to allow the members to nominate their successors. Mr. Bhimalli has promised to open a medical college for women with the available facilities and to revive the dental college. The employees of the society, who played a key role in deciding the winners in the previous elections, are likely to play a decisive role in the March 9 elections also.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail