Karnataka assembly elections: Roshan Baig may throw spanner in works for Rizwan Arshad

BENGALURU: Shivajinagar assembly constituency, a mix of well-to-do areas and slums, has been a stronghold of the Congress party for more than two decades. The segment found its new MLA in Rizwan Arshad, who was elected in the 2019 byelection, after Roshan Baig, a strong leader of the minority community, was mired in the IMA scam and faced disqualification.

The segment, which comprises the BBMP wards of Ramaswamypalya, Jayamahal, Halasuru, Bharathinagar, Shivajinagar, Vasanth Nagar and Sampangiram Nagar, has domination of Muslim population, with Christian and Tamil-speaking populations making up an integral part.

Going by past trends, the Congress bastion of Shivajinagar has also seen a strong presence of the Janata Party earlier. Roshan Baig was the long-standing Congress torchbearer here. In the 13 elections held here, Congress won seven times, Janata Party thrice and the BJP captured the seat twice. People here elected a Muslim candidate as MLA nine times, as there are more than 75,000 Muslim voters among the 2 lakh voters in the segment.

While the Congress has fielded sitting MLA Rizwan Arshad, BJP gave the ticket to N Chandra. With the nomination of the JDS candidate getting rejected, there are 21 candidates in the fray currently, while some may withdraw their nominations. 

Prima facie, the fight appears to be between the Congress and BJP, but Tanveer Ahmed, who has a criminal past and who filed his papers as an independent, is turning into a hurdle for Arshad. It is said that Ahmed is backed by Roshan Baig, who wants to regain his hold on the constituency after failing to be entertained by any party.

In the 2019 bypoll, Arshad won the seat by defeating M Saravana of the BJP by a margin of 13,521 votes. This time, he has advantages such as anti-incumbency against the BJP government, and hot-button issues such as hijab and halal bans targeting the minority community, which may convert into votes for him. However, Tamil voters, who are in large numbers in at least three wards, also have a big role in deciding his fate.

Voters in the constituency have a mixed response to the candidates, with a majority saying that several basic issues such as cleanliness, garbage, leaking drainage pipes, water supply etc need to be solved on priority.