H Nagesh, the Congress candidate from Mahadevapura Constituency, shares why voters should choose him. Hanumappa Nagesh, 64, is the MLA of Mulbagal (Kolar district), winning his first election as an independent candidate in 2018. He says he has performed well in Mulbagal and would like to repeat that in Mahadevapura, where he is originally from.

H Nagesh: Government official-turned-politician

Nagesh supported the Congress-JD(S) coalition government and became Minister of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood (September 2019 – February 2020). 

In 2019, he withdrew his support to the coalition government, along with 16 other MLAs, which then fell. He switched support to BJP and was appointed as Minister For Excise (August 2019) in the BS Yediyurappa cabinet. 

During this stint, the state set up a team of officials to study the pros and cons of selling liquor online. While he had expected to continue in the cabinet, he was dropped in January 2021 during a cabinet expansion and appointed as Chair, Ambedkar Development Corporation.

Nagesh was also in the news when the daughter of an excise department official filed a complaint with the PMO after the minister allegedly demanded a bribe for her ill father’s transfer. He had rubbished the allegation.  

In January 2023, he joined the Congress party. 

With a B.E from UVCE, Nagesh had worked for over three decades as a government official in KEB, BESCOM and MESCOM. He was Director (Transmission) at KPTCL. 

Interview of Congress candidate H Nagesh

Nagesh says the top issue of Mahadevapura are traffic and floods, which can be fixed with proper administrative controls.

He says with his background as a senior government official, he has had enough experience in public service.

Candidate – RWA meeting

On April 22nd, several RWA members and citizen groups of Mahadevpura interacted with H Nagesh at a meeting, who shared his perspectives, and vision and proposed solutions to the challenges faced by RWAs and residents. Here is the response to the questions posed by the audience.

Issue: Issue of unstable BESCOM power supply to apartments in the Budigere Cross area — BESCOM infrastructure has not kept up with the needs of the increasing number of apartments

Response: Since he was the Technical Director of BESCOM, he said that he understood the technical issues and challenges and can get any work done at BESCOM much faster than anyone else using his connections as a former technical director of BESCOM. He promised to fix such issues either by providing additional feeders or speeding up the substation that is already sanctioned for Mandur as soon as he is elected. He also said he will plan a substation in Bellandur to take care of frequent power failures in reply to the frequent voltage fluctuations and power shutdowns in Bellandur

Issue: Apartments constructed without proper approvals and lack of drain connectivity

Response: He will create a redressal cell at a mutually decided location, dedicated to addressing issues of RWAs. He also spoke of organising adalats within RWAs for quick resolution of issues with A-Khathas, Occupancy Certificates and other legal matters.

Issue: Lack of clarity of registration of societies leading to challenges in land title

Response: All such legal issues of RWAs will be given a renewed push and will be addressed in the best interest of RWA residents. (This particular issue also features in the Congress Apartment Cell Manifesto.)

Issue: Kaveri water connectivity to all apartments

Response: This will be done by studying the technical feasibility and proximity of Kaveri connections. If he wins, he will take an effort to address water problems by adding more infrastructure, groundwater rejuvenation measures etc.

In the discussions, Nagesh also mentioned the possibility of solar power for common areas of apartments with a guarantee of 200 units of free electricity to all the apartment owners in RWAs too. 

Community groups under the Million Voter Rising campaign shared their demand for a separate Municipal corporation for Mahadevapura, divided into scientifically demarcated wards of much smaller size with current population estimates and strengthening of the ward committee structure, with zero tolerance for all types of corruption. The candidate accepted and agreed to the demands.

Murali G and Valli Srinivasan of Million Voter Rising and Joji Joykutty, Budigere Cross Rising team, also contributed to this article.

Also read:

• 2023 Assembly Elections: Mahadevapura Voter Guide: Candidates and constituency info
• 2018 Assembly Elections: INC candidate AC Srinivas: A separate BBMP for Mahadevapura zone, with its own mayor