The Assembly elections in Karnataka are fast approaching and as a responsible media house, Newskarnataka.com is here to make an unbiased analysis of each of the Assembly segment, in terms of the work done and the works left undone. With the new column-Pre-Poll Trackers, newskarnataka.com makes a sincere effort to bring to readers the feelings of the voters across the state.

With the ruling party claiming to be a party that has walked the talk and the opposition parties going all guns brazing to attack the prior, it becomes difficult for a voter to know the truth behind those words.

The Pre-Poll Tracker is an attempt to assess the promises made five-years-ago by the party that came to power and the extent to which these promises have been fulfilled. It is an attempt to know the aspirations of the people and become a voice to those who have been left unheard.

Every week, two constituencies will be covered by our correspondents, so that our readers get to know the ground realities prevailing in these constituencies.

To begin with, newskarnataka brings an assessment of Sarvagnanagar, a constituency represented by Bengaluru development minister K J George.

Sarvagnanagar is one of the fast-growing areas in Bengaluru. It has many business establishments and educational institutions. It is considered as a second home for many foreign students, especially from African cities such as Lagos, Kano, Clasabanca, etc. Will the voters of Sarvagnanagar, who elected Congress candidate twice, repeat same in the forthcoming election?

Sarvagnanagar assembly segment, created as part of delimitation in 2008, is represented by K J George in the State Assembly since 2008. Earlier, he was representing Bharathinagar assembly constituency.

Situated in the north-east part of Bengaluru, Sarvagnanagar is one of the 28 assembly constituencies that witnessed lot of development in the recent past. Most of the roads are developed in this constituency and there was no shortage of funds since the elected representatives – majority of corporators and MLA – belong to the ruling party – BBMP as well as Assembly.

Happy Voters

Overall, the residents of Sarvagnagar, who had cast their votes in favour of George say that they have never been let down by their MLa, who went on to hold some important portfolios in the Siddaramaiah cabinet.

“We are happy with the developmental works taken up by Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, who represents this assembly constituency. He was instrumental in getting maximum funds allocated for this area. Many roads were asphalted, storm water drains are desilted. Recently, he performed ground-breaking ceremony for construction of 96 homes for slum dwellers,’’ said Ravi Victor, a resident of Maruthiseva Nagar.

What more? George, as per the people of his constituency is the face that they get to see in their constituency very often.

“He is not the man who returns to his constituency from one election to another. George makes sure that he meets people at his local office on Banaswadi Main Road on Wednesday and Saturday. These meetings are cancelled only if he is attending Assembly sessions,” says a local resident.

For the voters in Sarvagnanagar, the sheer accessibility to their elected representatives makes life easier.

“For us, action is secondary. He is always there to listen to us. That in itself is such a reassuring gesture,” says another resident of the constituency.

“He is accessible for us. He not only performs ground-breaking ceremonies but also supervises the progress of the work. He promised to provide better roads and sufficient drinking water. He has succeeded in fulfilling 80 per cent of the promises made while seeking our votes,’’ Rajanna S, a resident of Jai Bharath Nagar said.

There were 3,05,212 voters in 2013 and the number of voters is expected to be more this time. Though Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made efforts to grab this seat by fielding R Shankar in 2008 and Padmanabha Reddy in 2013, Congress candidate George romped home by polling 45,488 votes in 2008 and 69,673 votes in 2013 as against 22,880 votes polled by Shankar and 46,820 votes by Padmanabha Reddy who was JD(S) corporator from Kacharakanahalli. He quit the JD(S) and joined the BJP in 2013 to contest from Sarvagnanagar assembly constituency.

According to locals, George has been able to poll more than 20,000 votes in the two elections (2008 and 2013) than his opponents since the Opposition parties failed to field a strong candidate. They feel that it will be a cake walk for George if BJP fields Padmanabha Reddy again in 2018.

“Padmanabha Reddy is known as the corporator of Kacharakanahalli, one of the eight wards in Sarvagnanagar assembly constituency. BJP has succeeded in winning only three wards out of eight wards in BBMP elections held in 2015,’’ says Narayana Reddy M, a resident of Banaswadi.

The Glitch

The delay in completion of Hennur flyover is considered as the major failure of Congress government but crores of rupees were spent on either to widen roads or asphalting the roads that were neglected for many years.

The other problem in this constituency is the condition of the flyover near Maruthiseva Nagar. It is considered as the unscientific flyover in Bengaluru.

During peak hours, one has to wait for more than 30 minutes just to cross the other side or with bumper to bumper movement where the speed is not more than 20kmph.

The other problem is irregular water supply. Some residents complain that most of the layouts in Sarvagnanagar do not get more than 2,000 litres of Cauvery water. The reason is old and rusted pipes that were laid a few decades ago.

The same is with the underground drainage pipes that need to be replaced to choking and overflowing of manholes.

“It is the time for the elected representative start taking responsibility of constituency rather than pleasing their supporters during small political events,’’ opines Amith Nigli who contested unsuccessfully to the BBMP from Banaswadi ward in 2015.

All in all, Congress candidate George will have a cakewalk despite his failure in providing the much-needed infrastructure in Sarvagnanagar and many say that George will walk away victorious if the BJP fails to get a strong candidate against him this time.