The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Will they take the city forward?

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Will they take the city forward?

K.V. Subramanya

BANGALORE: Bangaloreans have elected almost an equal number of political novices and seasoned politicians to the 13th Legislative Assembly. Will the dream of the debutants and the experience of the veterans take Bangalore forward, is a million dollar question.

Of the 28 MLAs, who will be the voice of Bangalore in the Legislative Assembly, 14 have been elected to the Lower House for the first time.

While a majority of the 17 MLAs from the BJP are greenhorns, the Congress has many veterans among its ranks.

Although many are first-time MLAs, they have the experience of having worked as corporators in Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Council, the erstwhile city municipal councils (CMCs) or as members of Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayats. Thus, they apparently have a better knowledge of the civic problems of Bangalore and its suburbs.

For instance, the four MLAs from the BJP, S.R. Vishwanath (Yelahanka), Sathish Reddy (Bommanahalli), Nandheesh Reddy (K.R. Puram) and M. Krishnappa (Bangalore South) are all members of the zilla panchayat.

Seven former ministers have made it to the Legislative Assembly from the city and four of them are from the Congress: Ramalinga Reddy (BTM Layout), R. Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar), V. Somanna (Govindarajanagar) and K.J. George (Sarvagnanagar). The BJP legislators Katta Subramanya Naidu (Hebbal) and R. Ashok (Padmanabhanagar) were ministers in the H.D. Kumaraswamy Ministry.

Their former ministerial colleague B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan (JD-S) has been re-elected from Chamarajpet.

The former Lok Sabha member M. Srinivas (BJP, Rajarajeshwarinagar) and A. Narayanaswamy (BJP, Anekal) have been elected to the Legislative Assembly for the fourth term. There are four third-time MLAs in S. Suresh Kumar (BJP, Rajajinagar), Dinesh Gundu Rao (Congress, Gandhinagar), Krishna Byre Gowda (Congress, Byatarayanapura) and B. Prasanna Kumar (Congress, Pulakeshinagar).

M.L. Narendra Babu (Congress, Mahalaxmi Layout) and S. Raghu (BJP, C.V. Raman Nagar) have both won for the second consecutive term.

A majority of the newly-elected MLAs are highly qualified. Mr. Krishna Byre Gowda has a masters degree in international relations from the University of Washington.

While Dr. Sagar (MBBS, MS) and Dr. Ashwathnarayana (MBBS, FAGE) are qualified doctors. Mr. Limbavali, Mr. Raghu, Mr. Vijay Kumar and Mr. Gundu Rao are engineering graduates.

Mr. Subramanya holds a masters degree in business administration and Ms. Karandlje a masters degree in social work.

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