Karnataka elections 2019: Activists, corruption fighters fall flat against heavyweights

BENGALURU: Citizen activists and anti-corruption crusaders who contested against political heavyweights tasted defeat as voters continued to swear by traditional parties.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Swaraj India promised citizen-centric and corruption-free governance as an alternative to traditional parties, but they drew a blank when it came to winning seats. Analysts said these new parties are short of funds and resources unlike traditional parties, and lack grassrootlevel connect with voters.

AAP’s performance was dismal. BR Bhaskar Prasad, who contested from Mahadevapura against BJP heavyweight Aravind Limbavali, was hopeful of swinging votes in his favour, given that the segment had seen a lot of civic activism. But he could secure only 1,336 votes.

AAP’s Renuka Viswanathan, who was pitted against Congress’s NA Haris from Shantinagar, got only 2,658 votes, while AAP state convener Prithvi Reddy received 1,861 votes in Sarvagnanagar.

Srinivas Alavilli of Citizens for Bengaluru said: “Many candidates have won multiple times but things haven’t changed on the ground. The mindset of voters needs to change in order to bring about a change.”

Civic activist Ashwin Mahesh, who unsuccessfully contested the 2013 assembly elections as a Lok Satta Party candidate, said: “Parties like AAP promise development instead of identity politics, but this election was largely polarized in the name of identity politics.”