BENGALURU: Dasarahalli assembly constituency, on the northwestern margins of Bengaluru, nestles next to Peenya industrial area and includes eight wards of BBMP and several panchayat areas beyond. Though Namma Metro’s Purple Line arches over the constituency, it is chaos on ground. Battered and crowded roads and water scarcity are recurrent complaints across the constituency.
Earlier part of Uttarahalli constituency, Dasarahalli came into existence post delimitation in 2008. BJP’s S Muniraju has won both elections since then, but his opponents are not ready to concede the segment is a BJP bailiwick, pointing out at his reduced victory margin: from 22,155 in 2008 to 10,828 in 2013.
Muniraju, who is now eyeing a hattrick, attributes the narrowing of victory margin to one rebel and another breakaway party candidates eating into BJP votes.
“It is going to be hattrick this time for sure. In 2008, when I became the MLA for the first time, Dasarahalli didn’t have Cauvery water supply or drainage network. It’s not the same with the constituency now. We get Cauvery water once in two days and also have an underground drainage network,” he says.
JD(S) candidate R Manjunatha, who has mounted a stiff challenge to Muniraju, had lost BBMP polls from Mallasandra ward in 2015 by less than 500 votes as a Congress candidate. He is banking on anti-incumbency against both Congress government and the sitting BJP MLA, besides Vokkaliga backing for JD(S).
The constituency has nearly one lakh Vokkaliga votes. The BJP and JD(S) candidates as well as Congress nominee P N Krishnamurthy are Vokkaligas. Given that a split in Vokkaliga vote is highly likely, votes of other communities like Other Backward Classes (one lakh) religious minorities (70,000), Lingayats (25,000) and Malayalees (20,000) are crucial.
Besides, there are over 80,000 migrant labourers, mostly from North Karnataka, living in Dasarahalli. “They have benefited from the state government’s several schemes and will vote for us,” says Krishnamurthy.
Krishnamurthy claims the only visible development in the constituency is the Metro and Indira Canteen. “Both are results of the Congress government that has ruled the state in the last five years,” he points out.
Civic activism is absent in the area, though there is no dearth of issues that need urgent attention.
A resident from T Dasarahalli says he paid the mandatory Rs 60,000 to get a Cauvery water connection. “But we get water only once in 15 days. We depend on borewells. Yet, our BWSSB bill every month is no less than Rs 500- 700,” he says.
The railway underpass near 10th Main, AGB Layout, is pathetic during rainy season due to water stagnation. “As we are far away from the city centre, no one bothers about it,” rues a Shettihalli ward resident.
(Representative image)