Bengaluru: As many as 1765 candidates have jumped in the fray for the battle for Bengaluru. These are the nominations filed for 198 wards in IT city, that goes go municipal polls in two weeks from now. And while the ground issues are many, the greatest concern is of candidates' criminal past. Political parties have given tickets to people with criminal backgrounds – including rowdy-sheeters – for this contest.
KS Samiullah has been corporator before, five years back and this time, is looking forward to the keen contest with his congress nomination firmly in hand from the prestigious South Bengaluru ward of Jayanagar East. Accused in a murder case, Samiullah though dismisses his history.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, KS Samiulla said, "Kya cases? itne saal iske baare bath nahin ki, abhi election time pe bath karte hain. (What cases? Nobody talks of these cases all these years, suddenly at election time, they want to all drag it – what changes in eight days?)
The JDS, which got its candidates to take an oath of integrity last week in a show of morality, has fielded a father-son duo who have 15 cases against them. Party patriarch Deve Gowda says he’s unhappy, but helpless, as good candidates have defected to the Congress
JDS national president and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda said, "I 100 percent accept that the criminal records of these two candidates, to be frank, is bad. I registered my objections. I do not want to allow these two candidates to contest, some of the Muslim leaders brought up in public life, they all left and gone to Congress".
The party’s candidate in a central Bengaluru ward is Praveen, alias Malayali Praveen, who is a rowy-sheeter in many police stations across the city. And then there is Marimuthu, a history-sheeter in east Bengaluru, earlier notoriously known as the ‘hooch queen’… Justifiably enough, the Congress has fielded another rowdy-sheeter against her – Elumalai. The unfazed Congress jumps to their defence.
Commenting on this, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, "Just because an FIR is registered, you can’t call them criminal".
State Congress president Dr G Parameshwara said, "It’s not a rowdy-sheeter? Rowdy-sheeter to what extent? Unless criminality is proved, even if you give complaint they have to register an FIR".
With candidates with a suspect history in almost every zone in Bengaluru, the concern among civic groups is not whether they will have a city corporation committed to development, but whether they are headed to a goonda-raj of sorts. Apart from candidates with criminal history, there are other nominees – like realtors and contractors who form lobbies of their own, and may not always have the city’s welfare in their minds, if elected, they fear.
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