K R Puram, the largest of the 21 constituencies in the city has a total electorate of 3,08,400. Carved out from the erstwhile Varthur Assembly constituency (which no longer exists) and a few parts of Hoskote Assembly constituency, this new constituency comprises of all wards of the erstwhile K R Puram City Municipal Council (CMC).
K R PURAMWhile localities form only 23 per cent of the entire population, Malayalam speaking people dominate the area.None of the roads here are tarred and open sewers, severe shortage of drinking water and rampant encroachment of lake beds are the other problems that are worrying citizens. Carved out from the erstwhile Varthur Assembly constituency (which no longer exists) and a few parts of Hoskote Assembly constituency, this new constituency comprises of all wards of the erstwhile K R Puram City Municipal Council (CMC).
It also includes ward numbers 3 to 11 of Mahadevapura CMC, this constituency includes Sanna Thimmanahalli, Medahalli, Bhattrahalli, K R Puram, Ramamurthy Nagar, Doorvaninagar, Chikkabasavanapura, Devasandra, Vijnanapura, A Narayanapura, B Narayanapura, Singayyanapalya, Annayyanapalya, Mahadevpura, Benniganahalli, Vibhuthipura and Vimanapura areas. Ten villages - K. Narayanapura, Kottanur, N. Nagenahalli, Kyalasanahalli, Geddalahalli, Horamavu Agara, K Channasandra, Kalkere, Horamavu and Chalkere - are also part of this constituency with six polling booths from Bhattrahalli and Sigehalli of Hoskote Assembly constituency.
Nandish Reddy is the BJP candidate and the Congress and JD(S) candidates are A Krishnappa and Muniswamy respectively. B T Naganna of Lok Paritran, the party of ex-IITians is also in the run. CPI(M) candidate Gowramma has contested in this election.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Realtors set to turn heavy hitters on poll pitch
While Bangalore’s real estate market continues to be in the pause-mode, realtors are bracing themselves to race on a different track: That of politics!
With Karnataka heading for polls, the appetite for power appears to be getting stronger among the real-estate players in the city.
A telling indicator of the phenomenon is the number of realtors who are making a beeline to Congress, BJP and JD(S) offices seeking tickets to contest elections — likely to be held in the second or third week of May.
There are 28 assembly segments in Bangalore, but the number of ticket-seekers from each of the three major parties is more than 300. Of this, a majority of the aspirants are from the real estate sector. The turnout has, in fact, baffled the head-honchos of the political parties.
A senior JD(S) leader and a close confidante of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda told Business Standard: “We thought we will have a tough time finding candidates in Bangalore, but were surprised when we received around 350 applications. A preliminary study of the applications revealed that nearly 70 per cent of ticket seekers have real estate background.”
The number is higher in the Congress and the BJP, which have commenced the exercise of distributing applications. The pressure from realtors on the Congress leaders for tickets has intensified following the return of former chief minister S M Krishna, who is known for his pro-urban stand.
“We will get to know how many realtors have approached us for tickets only by April 9 when we start scrutinising the applications. A rough assessment of the happenings is a pointer to the fact that the coming elections will be a battle between realtors,” Congress leaders contended. Same is the case with the BJP.
The fight for power is not only expected to get fiercer once poll dates are announced, but will also change the dynamics of funding. Unlike the 2004 elections in which the mining lobby was the main fund sponsor for all the political parties, Election-2008 will see the realtors flexing their muscles.
But the question is why are the realtors wanting to get into the political ring? One probable answer being: Through power, it is easy to grow business in leaps and bounds.
The real-estate operators, who witnessed the way in which the mining lobby controlled the previous JD(S)-BJP government, also want to have a free run in Bangalore which is on a massive expansion mode.
Former MLAs like Katta Subramanya Naidu, H D Kumaraswamy, Zameer Ahmed Khan, Prasanna Kumar, C P Yogeshwar and M T B Nagaraj — who have been associated with various real-estate transactions — have become role-models for other realtors.
“If they can make it big using power, why should’nt we give it a try?”, asked a realtor from K R Puram-Mahadevapura area. A victory at the hustings will not only help the realtor consolidate his property base, but will also aid him in undertaking mega projects around the city.
The entry of realtors, both big and small, is sure to jack up the poll expenditure. Though the Election Commission has fixed Rs 10 lakh as ceiling on poll expenditure to be incurred by a single candidate, the coming elections will witness real-estate money being thrust into the voters’ hands. Insiders in the three political parties claim that each candidate in Bangalore is likely to spend anywhere between Rs 4 crore and Rs 12 crore.
In all, election spending by all the candidates in Bangalore will be in excess of Rs 500 crore, say sources.
While the expenditure will be low in the old constituencies, it will be higher in new segments like K R Puram, Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yelahanka as these are areas where large housing and industrial projects are coming up.
A trailer of what is expected was shown recently when officials of the income tax department conducted raids on the premises of over half-a-dozen real-estate developers in and around Bangalore and detected unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 223 crore in a single day. A majority of the developers who were raided were associated with some politician or the other.
For the political parties, realtors have turned out to be necessary evils at this juncture.
“As the stakes involved are high, we cannot afford to field a simple-politician. If a realtor has to be fought, another realtor with the same spending capability has to be fielded,” a senior politician said.
Source: Business Standard
Campaigning in K'taka goes high-tech
Karnataka is witnessing one of the most hyped elections the state has ever witnessed. Parties like the Congress, Janata Dal-Secular and the Bharatiya Janata Party are doing everything in the book to outsmart each other so that could be the ones to call the shots at Vidhan Soudha -- Karnataka's seat of power.The run up to the D-Day is bound to be a pot-boiler and parties, apart from finalizing candidates to contest polls, are thinking of various ways market their candidates and also their agenda for the state. An evident change that one can get to see is the manner in which parties are going to canvass.
Committees have been formed in every party to ensure campaign superiority. Parties have chosen the high-tech route to canvass for votes.
Both Congress and BJP have two advertising agencies each in Bangalore to take care of the publicity. Although the JD-S is yet to appoint an agency, they have started work through party workers, who are in constant touch with television channels and web portals to advance their campaign.Advertising agencies, which did not want to be named for this report, say that this time the focus is on an alternative medium of advertising for the elections -- meaning fewer newspaper advertisements as compared to previous years. Considering that the Election Commission has put a sealing of Rs 10 lakh per candidate, parties feel that it would be cheaper to look for an alternative method of advertising.
Sources in Congress told rediff.com that they would be spending around Rs 2.2 crore on advertising. Apart from using FM radio stations and an SMS campaign, the party plans to woo voters in cities in style -- that includes use of giant LCD screens. The Congress has also started its own call centre in Bangalore, which gives updates regarding the agenda of the party and also its candidates.
Advertising agencies handling the campaign for the BJP say they will go ahead, more or less, on the pattern that Narendra Modi [Images] used in Gujarat. Apart from using television space to a large extent, their main thrust would be on bulk SMS. BJP leader Pramila Nesargi says that a hi-tech campaign is aimed not just to get the votes of the rich or upper middle class, but is also an attempt to bridge the gap in society. The BJP is expected to spend Rs 2 crore on advertising.The JD-S, which has always been projecting itself as a farmer friendly party, too has hi-tech plans. Apart from the television, they would on post advertisements on web sites. JD-S sources say they would concentrate on pop-up advertisements and bulk mailing system. The party believes the number of people using the internet has gone up five fold in Bangalore and hence this would be the best way of reaching out to the voter. Through the bulk mailer pattern, they would send out mails at random regarding their party, the candidates and also their agenda for the election. The JD-S is expected to spend anything between Rs 1.2 to Rs 1.5 crore for advertising.
Political parties also feel the need to have eco-friendly pattern of advertising. With the Election Commission making it clear that political parties should avoid the use of plastic, the use of buntings, flags and banners is being brought to a bare minimum.
Committees have been formed in every party to ensure campaign superiority. Parties have chosen the high-tech route to canvass for votes.
Both Congress and BJP have two advertising agencies each in Bangalore to take care of the publicity. Although the JD-S is yet to appoint an agency, they have started work through party workers, who are in constant touch with television channels and web portals to advance their campaign.Advertising agencies, which did not want to be named for this report, say that this time the focus is on an alternative medium of advertising for the elections -- meaning fewer newspaper advertisements as compared to previous years. Considering that the Election Commission has put a sealing of Rs 10 lakh per candidate, parties feel that it would be cheaper to look for an alternative method of advertising.
Sources in Congress told rediff.com that they would be spending around Rs 2.2 crore on advertising. Apart from using FM radio stations and an SMS campaign, the party plans to woo voters in cities in style -- that includes use of giant LCD screens. The Congress has also started its own call centre in Bangalore, which gives updates regarding the agenda of the party and also its candidates.
Advertising agencies handling the campaign for the BJP say they will go ahead, more or less, on the pattern that Narendra Modi [Images] used in Gujarat. Apart from using television space to a large extent, their main thrust would be on bulk SMS. BJP leader Pramila Nesargi says that a hi-tech campaign is aimed not just to get the votes of the rich or upper middle class, but is also an attempt to bridge the gap in society. The BJP is expected to spend Rs 2 crore on advertising.The JD-S, which has always been projecting itself as a farmer friendly party, too has hi-tech plans. Apart from the television, they would on post advertisements on web sites. JD-S sources say they would concentrate on pop-up advertisements and bulk mailing system. The party believes the number of people using the internet has gone up five fold in Bangalore and hence this would be the best way of reaching out to the voter. Through the bulk mailer pattern, they would send out mails at random regarding their party, the candidates and also their agenda for the election. The JD-S is expected to spend anything between Rs 1.2 to Rs 1.5 crore for advertising.
Political parties also feel the need to have eco-friendly pattern of advertising. With the Election Commission making it clear that political parties should avoid the use of plastic, the use of buntings, flags and banners is being brought to a bare minimum.
Karnataka Elections 2008's Profile
The state of Karnataka will go to the polls in May 2008 to elect 224 legislators, as declared by the Election Commission of India.
There will be three phases of voting - on May 10, May 16 and May 22, 2008. The vote counting will take place on May 25, 2008.
Karnataka Elections 2008 – vital statistics
Total Voters
40,077,666
Total Polling Stations
39758
Female Voters
19,678,328
Male Voters
20,399,338
There will be three phases of voting - on May 10, May 16 and May 22, 2008. The vote counting will take place on May 25, 2008.
Karnataka Elections 2008 – vital statistics
Total Voters
40,077,666
Total Polling Stations
39758
Female Voters
19,678,328
Male Voters
20,399,338
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