Belagavi siren call: Bengaluru is crying for an infra fix while Karnataka CM is flirting with a second capital

Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is considering declaring Belagavi as the second capital of the state to soothe sentiments of neglect in the northern region. Though Kumaraswamy responded quickly to deflate the feeble bandh call for separate statehood for north Karnataka, he must restrain from over the top promises. Belagavi hosts the legislative assembly’s winter session and a stately legislature building was inaugurated in 2012, but as Kumaraswamy himself admitted it stands as a showpiece for most of the year.

Now he has proposed to move the upa lokayukta and some information commissioners to Belagavi but these may be viewed as token gestures without meaningful decentralisation. Many states face this problem of regional imbalances. Here Old Mysuru and coastal regions have benefited from better rainfall distribution and proximity to Bengaluru while north Karnataka is on the drier side. Even the Constitution was amended in 2012 to allow reservation in educational institutions and government jobs for Hyderabad-Karnataka, which falls in north Karnataka. But revenues from Bengaluru help fund development works in backward districts.

However, in the current political context this may be no consolation for the malcontents. The JD(S)-Congress alliance has tilted the axis of power towards Old Mysuru and even Congress’s north Karnataka leaders are sulking. It is notable that BJP’s B Sriramulu was isolated within his own party and quickly retracted his bifurcation demand, a sign that it enjoys little traction. Kumaraswamy would do well to improve urban infrastructure in Bengaluru for his promises of developing north Karnataka towns like Belagavi, Raichur, Bidar and Kalaburagi to be taken seriously. Political undercurrents can mainstream even fringe demands and the weak Congress-JD(S) alliance must deliver on the governance front to shore up the state government’s credibility.