Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Council polls: will Namoshi be lucky this time too?

GULBARGA: It is advantage Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the North-East Teachers’ Constituency of the Legislative Council which goes to polls on June 26 as the two-time BJP MLC Shashil G. Namoshi appears to have a distinctive advantage over his rivals.

The constituency is spread over five districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, including Gulbarga, Raichur, Koppal, Bidar and Bellary, and Harapanahalli taluk of Davangere district.

The Congress has, for the first time, fielded a strong candidate in Annaraya Ajagonda, former president of the Karnataka State Primary School Teachers Association.

The Congress candidate, who commands respect among teachers, has promised to take up issues such as disparity in wages of the teachers recommended by the 5th Pay Commission, non payment of arrears and the 15 per cent cut imposed on the aid to the aided colleges by the Government. The BJP candidate is confident that the good work done by him for the teaching community during the last two terms will work in his favour.

Mr. Namoshi said that regularisation of 1,500 part-time lecturers, hike in the salary, time-bound promotions ensured to teachers and high school teachers getting opportunity to become principals were some of his achievements during his two terms.

He would, if re-elected, work towards including the teachers in the Yashashvini Health Insurance Scheme and implementation of the Vaidyanathan Committee report. He would also help fill up posts for music and art, and crafts teachers.

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar organisations are using all their resources to garner support for Mr. Namoshi. Added to this, some teachers who do not have any party affiliations are working for him at a personal level.

Another advantage for Mr. Namoshi is his inimitable style of campaigning. His way of reaching out to individual teachers in all the districts has given him lead over the other contestants.

The BJP sources said that Mr. Namoshi had already toured the constituency thrice and was on the last leg of his campaign, visiting different taluks and meeting the teachers.

The North-East Teachers’ Constituency has always been an abode of the non Congress parties and has never elected a Congress candidate in the last four terms.

In the first term, the constituency elected the former Minister Vaijnath Patil who contested on the Janata Party ticket and in the second term, Basavaraj Patil Sedam, the former president of the BJP.

The Janata Dal (United) has fielded Shivaraj Patil as its candidate.

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