Two seats, two distinct identities

Belagavi, the city that has aspired to be the second capital of the State for long, will witness another churning of public opinion to choose its two representatives on May 12.

The two seats, carved out during the 2008 delimitation, represent the two distinct cultural regions within the city. While Belagavi north includes up-market areas and the extensions to the city, Belagavi south retains its old world charm.

The city has been in the news for the infamous border dispute and the apparent Kannada-Marathi divide for decades. Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, the party pushing for merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra, has had considerable influence on the voters for decades. The city witnessed language riots in 1988 where seven persons died.

However, much has changed since then. Selected as a smart city, Belagavi has seen unprecedented infrastructure development with investment in roads, pavements and streetlights. It has also attracted industrial investment and human resource from across the State and country.

Groupism

MES remains strong in Belagavi south seat where former Mayor and Maratha strongman Sambhaji Patil is the incumbent MLA. However, he shifted to Belagavi north after from some of his party colleagues felt he should make way for new leaders. Infighting between the MES members has led to each group fielding its own candidates, in both the seats in the city. Prakash Maragale belongs to one of the MES groups while Kiran Saynayak and Vinayak Jadhav claim support from other groups.

It is likely to see a direct contest between former MLA Abhay Patil of the BJP and the MES candidates, with the Congress and JD(S) in the background. Congress candidate M.D. Lakshminarayana hails from Turuvekere in Tumkur district. He is hoping to win over voters from the weavers’ community who form a sizeable chunk of the population in the old city. However, lack of fluency in Marathi that most of the weavers speak and the tag of being an outsider are factors that will impact his election.

Abhay Patil is among the younger leaders of the party who claims to have `changed the face of south Belagavi’ during the BJP government. The Jain leader organises cultural competitions for women and children during Hindu festivals. However, he faces allegations of assaulting an Irrigation Department engineer, and two of his party workers who were demanding party tickets. These cases are still under investigation. According to the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission, he faces charges of unlawful assembly, rioting with deadly weapons, criminal intimidation, assault, house trespass, assault on public servant, bribery and breach of peace.

Firoze Sait of the Congress has been representing the Belagavi north seat for two elections now. Earlier, Ramesh Kudchi of the Congress held the seat twice. Apart from Sambhaji Patil of the MES, Belagavi north has Balasaheb Kakatkar and Santosh Bavadekar as candidates claiming support from MES groups.

Mr. Sait says he is confident as he has worked for “maintaining peace in the city and developing it.” The 66-year-old leader’s family migrated to Belagavi from Gujarat 150 years ago. He belongs to the Memoni sect of Muslims that is traditionally into trade. He points out that the incidence of communal or language riots have come down in the last decade.

The Sait family is in the construction and logistics business. Its members operate trucks and goods carriers and own a chain of petrol pumps in the city, apart from real estate. “We have built - using our area development funds or the state government funds - over 20 playgrounds, sports complex and swimming pools. The cricket stadium, tennis academy and the swimming pool are of Olympic standards,’’ he said. He shot to fame for erecting what is claimed to be the tallest national flag in the country.

JD(S) has fielded a young Muslim activist Ashfaq Ahmed Madaki and the BJP’s nominee is Anil Benake. Mr. Benake was in the news for wrong reasons when a video of him spending time on a beach with a woman who was not his wife went viral. He has denied the charges and suspected doctoring of footage. The list of candidates in Belagavi north seems to reflect the population pattern in the constituency. There are nine Muslim candidates, the highest in the district, as this part of the city has a sizeable number of Muslim voters.

Of the 2.29 lakh voters in the Belagavi north constituency, women outnumber men by around 800. There are 1.14 lakh men and 1.15 lakh women voters. Belagavi south has a total of 2.30 lakh voters with 1.16 lakh men and 1.13 lakh women.