Retired IAS officer to be BJP candidate for Hagaribommanahalli constituency?

Bengaluru: As the assembly elections in Karnataka are fast approaching, the number of people entering politics is increasing. All major political parties are screening the candidates, as many retired bureaucrats are trying to test electoral waters. Now a retired IAS officer has joined BJP and is an aspirant for a ticket from Hagaribommanahalli constituency in Vijayanagar district. He is also the local's favourite.

Retired IAS officer M Lakshminarayana joined the BJP in the presence of Tourism Minister Anand Singh at the BJP office in Vijayanagar recently. He is an aspirant for a ticket from Hagaribommanahalli SC reserved seat in this assembly election. The sitting MLA of the constituency is BheemaNaik of Congress.

M Lakshminarayana was involved in various programmes in the constituency for many days. He has stated that he is also a BJP ticket aspirant. He also started campaigning in the constituency. He officially joined the BJP party on Monday. A few days ago, he also met former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa before he joined.

Retired IAS officer M Lakshminarayana is a close aide of former CM BS Yeddyurappa. When Yeddyurappa was the Chief Minister, Lakshminarayana was his principal secretary. After his retirement, he was appointed as a special advisor. M Lakshminarayana has worked in various departments including Social Welfare, Public Works and as a Commissioner of BBMP.

Earlier there were discussions that M Lakshminarayana should be fielded in the reserved constituency of Chitradurga or Bellary district. Now he is an MLA aspirant for Hagaribommanahalli SC reserved seat. In the 2018 elections, K NemirajNaik was the BJP candidate in the constituency.

Also, the retired IAS officer has a good profile and following among locals for his work. He has been constantly working in Hagaribommanahalli constituency for a long time. He has identified the problems and issues faced by the locals, has also planned to execute the actions in the coming days if elected.

Meanwhile, there are allegations made on present MLA BheemaNaik that in the affidavit submitted during the 2008 election nomination papers, there were only two vehicles and no land, but in 2018, there are 8 cars, 23 acres of non-agricultural land, and 40 acres of land were in the name of his wife. There were also questions raised on from where the huge illegal property including two commercial shops worth Rs 7.10 crore in Bengaluru came from.

The party workers and locals feel there are more chances of BheemaNaik losing if a ticket is given to him from Congress. Also, BJP has several ticket aspirants from the constituency, out of which retired IAS officer Lakshminarayana has more chances of getting a ticket. As the party senior leaders have seen his work and he has a clean image.

There are a total of 2,17,545 voters in the constituency that includes general voters, NRI voters and service voters. Amongst the general voters, 1,09,481 are male, 1,08,002 female and 21 others. The electorate sex ratio in the constituency is 98.61 and the approximate literacy rate is 69 percent.