Jayanagar candidates are like this only!

Jayanagar candidates are like this only!
Satish Shile, Bangalore, Mar 22, DH News Service:

The adage goes ‘ you get what you deserve’. And so will the residents of Jayanagar.

Considered to be Bangalore’s most educated pocket, the people of Jayanagar will have to choose between BBMP candidates who range between primary school dropouts and people who have cleared just PUC.

For the contest at Byrasandra, while the BJP has fielded N Nagaraj, who dropped out after standard IV, the Congress has nominated M Joseph who could not go beyond standard IX. Janata Dal(S) candidate Mohammad Rasool was not as brilliant. He could make only standard VI.

Nagaraj’s senior party colleague MLA B N Vijaya Kumar waxes eloquent about Jayanagar’s profile. According to Kumar, the literacy rate in the Jayanagar Assembly segment is not less than 90 per cent. And yet, educational qualification was not a principal criterion for selection of candidates by the three major parties.

Of course, there are a couple of notable exceptions among the candidates: The Congress’ Arun Kumar, who is contesting the Sarakki ward, holds an MA degree. His party colleague T S Kamal Kumar, who will be up against the BJP’s Tafazullah Ahmed, a diploma holder, and the JD(S) candidate Shakibullah Khan, who has passed the SSLC, has an ITI diploma.

Despite these unenviable credentials, party leaders claim they have fielded educated candidates. Former Congress corporator and Jayanagar Block Congress president Divakar insisted all the nominees from his party are “educated”. The BJP’s Kumar shared the same view.

The records –– in these cases, the individual affidavits submitted by the candidates–– speak otherwise. So, by own their admission, Chandrashekhar Raju of the BJP and R Venkatesh of the JD(S), both of whom will contest the JP Nagar ward, have passed PUC, while their Congress rival Prakash Kumar scraped through SSLC. Likewise, in the Jayanagar East ward, the Congress’ Munisanjeevaiah, who dropped out of school after managing to pass standard VIII, is pitted against the BJP’s N Lakshmikanth, who has passed PUC.

In the last assembly elections, the poll turnout in the Jayanagar constituency was 45 per cent. Now, many people are not even taking the trouble to find out about the candidates.
Ushas Apartment resident V Kashinanthan of Byrasandra bluntly said he would not cast his vote in the BBMP election. “I don’t know where to vote. There is a lot of confusion about the place. Besides, why should I waste my time to find out?” he questioned, echoing the sentiments of many such voters in Jayanagar.