Bengaluru: Congress trying to capture BJP stronghold in C V Raman Nagar

Bengaluru: The Congress candidate Anand Kumar, who bagged the Congress ticket at the last moment, has to sweat it all out to defeat BJP’s S Raghu, who has won a hat-trick in CV Raman Nagar in the eastern part of the capital and is on his way to his fourth victory.

The election campaign is in full swing in the constituency and the Congress wants to attack the BJP stronghold here. However, the experiment of fielding a new face in every election is backfiring. This is a boon for the BJP. Former mayor KC Vijayakumar in 2008, P Ramesh in 2013, former mayor R Sampath Raj in 2018, this time former member of the corporation Anand Kumar, Congress is fielding a new candidate here in every election.

Voters are also outraged that those who got tickets from the Congress and lost the election did not return to the constituency. If you take a tour of the constituency, it can be observed that there is importance given on government school and hospital, infrastructure development. People are also appreciating the response of the MLA during the Covid pandemic. It is noteworthy that famous names like Dr Rajkumar, BR Ambedkar, Basavanna have been named to the parks.

MLA S Raghu, who has won three times in a row from the BJP in the same constituency after the restructuring of constituencies, was also elected as an MLA from Shantinagar once before this. This is his fifth election. Anand Kumar, a former member of the party from the Congress, got a ticket at the last moment and formed his own force and is contesting opposite the BJP candidate.

Till the last minute the party workers did not know who the Congress candidate for CV Raman Nagar would be. Former mayor Sampath Raj, who was eyeing the Pulakeshi Nagar ticket, did not mind contesting here. However, his name was at the forefront. This time JDS has supported RPI as its organisation is not strong in this constituency.

Apparently, there is competition here between BJP and Congress. In the constituency which has CV Raman Nagar, Lalbahadur Nagar, New Baiyappanahalli, Hoysalanagar, Old Thippsandra, New Thippsandra, Jalakanteshwarnagar, Jeevanbimanagar, Konena Agrahara wards, the constituency is not dominated by any one particular community.

There are voters from all communities like Scheduled Caste, Reddy, Vokkaliga, Tamil, Muslim, Hindi speakers etc. However, the constituency needs to fix the traffic situation and also lacks proper space for street vendorsto do business.