Karnataka - Bangalore   

Kannada Sahitya Parishat elections likely in August

Bangalore: The long-awaited elections of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, which is seen more as a political launch pad for those aspirants “committed” for the cause of Kannada, is likely to be held in the last week of August. The official notification for the elections will be issued on June 6, according to sources in the parishat.

The parishat, which functions under the purview of the Cooperative Societies Act, gets a financial assistance of Rs. 50 lakh as salary component and other grants from the Government.

In fact, elections to the parishat are “technically” pending since November. But the erstwhile executive committee of the parishat, headed by Chandrashekhar Patil, obtained a six-month “extension” through a “unanimous” resolution for completing the pending works. The extended tenure of the parishat expired on April 30.

Although the Government appointed an administrator to the parishat, it was compelled to wait for the start of the election process because of the Assembly polls. It has also appointed a senior official of the Revenue Department as Returning Officer for the elections.

Of late, political importance to the parishat elections is on the increase owing to various factors, including the increasing Kannada consciousness and efforts to launch regional political parties on the lines of the DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh.

Prof. Patil and his predecessor Harikrishna Punaroor openly advocated that the president of the parishat should be concurrently accommodated in the Legislative Council through nomination. This would mean that the tenure of the parishat president should also be extended from the existing three years to six years.

The number of eligible voters this time has crossed 65,000 against 40,000 in 2004 and 21,000 in 2001. Members are eligible to vote only three years after their enrolment. Incidentally, candidates of forward communities, such as Brahmin and Lingayat, have made it to the top post of the cultural body right from its inception.

In an interview to The Hindu on the eve of the 74th Akhila Bharata Sahitya Sammelan in Udupi, Prof. Patil admitted that caste and cultural politics helped him win the elections in 2004.

“At that time, the number of parishat voters was 40,000. Now, it has swelled to 75,000. By 2009, it will reach over a lakh. This would mean only a Lingayat from north Karnataka with a full grasp of the cultural scenario and with a secular outlook can head the parishat,” he said.

Prof. Patil, who cannot contest the parishat elections for the next three years, created a history of sorts by filing his nomination as an independent candidate from Chamarajpet Assembly constituency (in Bangalore) even before his extended tenure expired.

He called a political press conference on the parishat premises for the first time in its over 80-year history to announce the launch of a political party committed to the cause of Kannada.

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