Freebies alone will not attract Chickpet voters this time

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: The stage is being set for a 'bigger name' in Chickpet, a diverse but profitable constituency in the city, as the state assembly elections approach.

Apart from bigshots Uday Garudachar and RV Devaraj, billionaire Yusuf Babu aka KGF Babu among other candidates from different parties are set to enter the arena in Chickpet. As per sources, freebies and new schemes have already been announced by the many candidates to woo voters here. The constituency has around 38 slums and a majority of them belong to the working class.

Thus, it has been seen from the past that if all the candidates gain the trust of the slum voters, the road to victory will be smooth. BJP candidate Uday Garudachar, who had bagged 57312 votes in the 2018 election with a total margin of 7934 against the INC candidate RV Devaraj, has high expectations even this time. Devaraj, a three-time MLA who was previously elected twice from the Chamrajpet constituency, before delimitation of constituencies that changed the borders.

Despite this, he had managed to gather 49378 votes in the previous elections thanks to the SDPI who managed to snatch away possible votes from Congress. As KGF Babu failed to get a Congress ticket, it is said that he may turn to JD(S). He is expected to play a decisive role in the victory and defeat of the candidates of major parties in Chickpet this time. However the exhausted residents of the constituency are now least bothered about who comes to power next.

Speaking to News Trail, residents and traders in the constituency complained of age-old issues like poor infrastructure, improper sanitation, traffic congestion, bad roads, despite the areas contributing to the state's tax revenue. "We need better facilities and good infrastructure in our area. We will cast our vote to the candidate who is willing to work for us now," Manoj Kumar, a resident, said.

The traders said that the MLAs including Devaraj have done nothing to improve the condition of the constituency. "The area has a lot of civic issues to which the MLAs have turned blind eye in the past. We had voted for BJP, impressed with the public speech made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at National College Ground here," a trader said.

Previously SDPI had fielded Mujahiddin Pasha, splintering the public votes which enabled a win for the BJP leader. While the BJP and the Congress had accused each other of propping up the SDPI to help split Minority votes, this time KGF Babu may become a headache for both the major parties.

The Muslim community is large in Chickpet and looks decisive. Vokkaliga, Backward Class and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities are almost equal in number and are so large that they decide the victory or defeat of the candidates. Apart from Jains, people from Rajasthan and Gujarat, Tamil and Telugu speakers are in good numbers.