The Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency is often considered a high-profile and prestigious seat that boasts of big names like Narayana Murthy, Sudha Murthy, Anil Kumble, Kiccha Sudeep, Nandan Nilekani and others as its electorate. The seat, which has been a stronghold of the BJP, is witnessing a high-intensity campaign by the party’s candidate Tejasvi Surya and Congress’ Sowmya Reddy.
News18 caught up with Surya over a cup of hot filter coffee to discuss the issues and campaign in the constituency where the leader shared his views on the electoral battle as well as Karnataka’s water woes.
With the elections in Karnataka being reduced to a contest between Congress’s five guarantees and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee, Surya argued that the former would not work as people understand that this is an election to pick the prime minister of the country.
“Even the delivery of these Congress guarantees is patchy, especially in urban centres like Bengaluru. The track record of delivery and experience is something that the voter will contrast in case he is also a beneficiary of Modi’s guarantee. Our constituency has a large number of elderly and middle-class people, so we started expanding Jan Aushadhi Kendras. In 2019, we had 14 Jan Aushadhi Kendras, while today we have 132 — the highest for a parliamentary constituency for the whole country. Two lakh people use it every month and the annual saving is about Rs 25 crore. People in the constituency call it ‘Modi Medicals’. That’s the kind of connect [we have]. There are two lakh Ayushman Bharat card holders in our constituency. In the last five years, 1.5 lakh free treatments have been given valuing Rs 431 crore,” said Surya.
When asked if the Union government can claim credit for projects like metro, airport terminal and suburban rail project, which see equal contribution from the state government with a majority of the funding being raised in the form of loans, he said: “For all international projects, whether it’s the metro or suburban projects, the Union government stands as sovereign guarantee. All these big-ticket projects are state and central government funded projects to an extent. But without Centre giving a push, they never take off. The suburban train project is not moving fast because SPV has state government officers and most of them lack the technical expertise to lead it. I advocate that it be handed over to Indian Railways,” he argued.
The state government has accused the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to Karnataka in the tax devolution process but Surya does not buy the argument. “In 10 years, Modi government has given 258 per cent more money than what was given by UPA government to Karnataka in 10 years,” the MP said.
When reminded that the tax collection too had increased significantly during these years and the state government says it is only fair to do a comparison in percentage terms with overall tax collection, Surya argued that “the percentage is decided by the Finance Commission and not the Union government”. “If the 14th Finance Commission percentage of allocation was higher than the 15th, then why are you not giving credit? This is politics,” he added.
He also went on to say that the Finance Commission report “doesn’t mention grant for peripheral ring road. And it doesn’t mention any special grant to any state, forget Karnataka”.
Drought Relief
With Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicating that there could have been a slight delay in disbursing drought relief funds, the Congress has pounced on the opportunity and accused the Modi government of neglecting drought-hit Karnataka.
However, Surya argues that “Karnataka has Rs 650 crore under the SDRF for drought relief, which they can make use of”.
“Before demanding more, let the state government tell what they have done with Rs 650 crore to alleviate concerns of drought. During UPA, Union government gave eight per cent of the amount asked for during drought. Under NDA, over the last 10 years, we have got 38 per cent on average of what was asked as drought relief. Which is more? They have submitted the report late and because of Model Code of Conduct, meetings couldn’t take place,” he said.
‘Don’t believe Mekedatu is the solution’
Certain pockets of Bengaluru, especially areas on the outskirts of the city, have been reeling under water shortage. The Congress government has pitched the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project across Cauvery as a solution but the Bengaluru South MP differs. He also placed the responsibility of getting a No-Objection Certificate on the state government.
“Personally, I don’t believe Mekedatu is the solution. We have to maintain lakes better. If we control land sharks and break real-estate lobby, we will do better. The Congress says Mekedatu is not taking off because the Central Water Commission (CWC) is not giving the go-ahead. CWC needs an NoC from Tamil Nadu where Congress is in alliance with DMK as part of the INDIA bloc. Siddaramaih and DK Shivakumar should speak to Stalin and take NoC. DMK says they will oppose Mekedatu. You say you are champions of Kannada cause. Procuring NoC for Mekedatu is the primary responsibility of the state government. I would say the same even in case of a BJP government,” he said.
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