murali772 - 13 March, 2014 | Bangalore | Corruption | Citizen Reports | Commuter rail | Politics, Elections | crony capitalism

Like in Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, primary election in Bangalore North scheduled to be held on Thursday, is petering out to be a farce with top Congress leaders threatening to defeat the very purpose of the experiment. Former MP C Narayanaswamy, Rajiv Gowda, IIMB faculty and son of former Assembly Speaker late M Venkatappa, former MLA N L Narendra Babu and KPCC Secretary G C Chandrashekhar are in the fray. - - - One of the voters, a block-level party leader on condition of anonymity, expressing cynicism on its outcome, said, “Primaries are no different from other elections and are influenced by money, muscle and caste considerations.”

For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here.

I have been reading with wonderment how Prof Rajiv Gowda, somebody with such impeccable credentials, looking from any angle, is seen by the party big-wigs, including the CM, as just an also ran in the contest. Prof Gowda was amongst the first of the city politicians to openly champion our "Namma Railu" (Commuter Rail - check here) proposal, in full appreciation of its importance for the sustainable growth of the city and the surrounding townships, even as many of the others haven't even bothered to differentiate between Namma Railu and Namma Metro. Thereafter, he started identifying with our other sustainable mobility pursuits like Bus Day, Cycle Day, etc too, in the process coming close to the youth of the city. As such, one was expecting that he will be the automatic choice of the party to one of the city constituencies, populated as it is largely by educated youth. Apart from all of these, he has been the face of the party in the national TV debates too.

So, when even after the party's favourite (for whatever reasons), Sri Krishna Byre Gowda, dropped out (actually, he was not interested, even to begin with), one thought the path had cleared for Prof Gowda. But strangely, the current favourite, even for the CM, is reported to be Sri Narayanaswamy, who just switched to Congress from JD(S).

With Sri Mallikarjun Kharge as the Cabinet Minister for Railways, and Congress in power in the state, one was hoping that Namma Railu would have been steaming (rather electrifying) away by now (at least the 1st phase of it, with an outlay of just Rs 175 cr). But, for reasons that are unclear, it hasn't happened.

The question that arises is are there vested interests in the way? And, is Prof Gowda too, willy-nilly, a victim of their machinations?

Muralidhar Rao

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