GENRE: Voices

How should one go about voting in an election? This seems quite a bewildering challenge for some voters unless they have already made up their mind on whom or which party to vote. The manifestos of both the major parties are out. In case the promises they are making and their track record of delivering on previous manifestos hasn’t helped you decide, read on. For those still undecided, this article may give you some guidance on making an informed choice. Let us first begin by understanding the role of a Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP),the nature of our democracy…

Actor and film personality Prakash Raj is contesting from Bangalore Central constituency as an independent candidate. He will be facing two-term BJP MP P C Mohan, Congress candidate and MLC Rizwan Arshad, and 19 other candidates. Prakash Raj grew up in Shanthi Nagar, near the centre of the city. Alongside a long career in theatre and films, he had also been involved in social service, having adopted villages and schools. Prakash says he now wants to be the “catalyst of change for a larger section of society than just the one-off village or school.” While he is no stranger to…

The Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme was introduced in 1993 to enable MPs to create useful community assets in their constituencies. Currently, each MP is allotted Rs 5 crore per year, that is, Rs 25 crore per term which is a substantial sum of public money to be placed at the disposal of an individual. MPs are expected to recommend projects based on local needs and the district authority is made responsible for due diligence, approval, selection of implementation agency and execution. The Government of India releases directly to the district authority the annual entitlement of Rs 5…

Bangalore South comprises eight assembly constituencies - Basavanagudi, Bommanahalli, BTM Layout, Chickpet, Govindarajanagar, Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar and Vijayanagar. The constituency is considered largely conservative and traditional, more so areas like Jayanagar and Basavanagudi. But it also has a fairly large migrant population, many of whom work in the city’s IT sector, in areas like BTM Layout and Bommanahalli. The constituency has been a BJP stronghold for long. Find which wards comes under the Bangalore South parliamentary constituency. According to the website of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, as of 16th January, the constituency had 21,66,445 voters - 11,29,388 male, 10,36,718…

Senior politician and Rajya Sabha MP B K Hari Prasad is the Congress candidate for Bangalore South. He was considered a surprise candidate in the constituency where BJP was expected to field Tejaswini Ananth, wife of late MP Ananth Kumar. However, instead of Tejaswini, BJP has also fielded a surprise candidate, 28-year-old Tejasvi Surya, here. A resident of Malleshwaram, Hari Prasad has been a member of the Rajya Sabha four times - 1990-1996, 2004-2010, 2013-2014 (elected after Anil Lad of INC resigned, to take charge as Bellary MLA), and 2014-present. In 1999, Hari Prasad had contested from Bangalore South against…

Tejasvi Surya, contesting on a BJP ticket from Bangalore South constituency, is one of the youngest candidates this election. Surya, 28, is a practising lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, and has been associated with the BJP and RSS for long. He is currently the State Secretary of Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing. Surya is a spokesperson for the BJP, and also part of its national social media team. He is also the nephew of Ravi Subramanya, the BJP MLA from Basavanagudi. Surya has co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, an organisation that runs projects related to education and entrepreneurship.…

A second time MP, Dr Naramalli Sivaprasad is a versatile personality. A theatre-artist, actor, film producer and two-time MP from the Chittoor Constituency, Sivaprasad is known for dressing up as various characters in Parliament to draw attention to issues. Dressed on various occasions as characters as diverse as Adolf Hitler, Chatrapathi Shivaji and MG Ramachandran, the MP staged protests demanding special packages for Andhra Pradesh. While his appearances as a theatre artist have hogged headlines, his recorded attendance and engagement as Member of Parliament on the floor of the House leave much to be desired.  In the 2014 elections, Sivaprasad…

With a red and black shawl over her shoulders and a warm smile, Thamizhachi Thangapandian walks the streets of Medavakkam on Tuesday, April 2 2019. She initiates a friendly conversation with the women, tastes the Kara Kuzhambu in one of the houses and listens attentively to their  problems. She assures that she will transform the locality if elected to power. A writer, poet and academician, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) camdidate Thamizhachi Thangapandian is fighting her first Lok Sabha election from Chennai South. She is campaigning vigorously -- both online and offline; her Facebook page is filled with updates about her…

India is in the midst of an acute unemployment crisis. Unemployment rate is at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18 as per the leaked Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). According to the NSSO data, unemployment rate in urban areas is 7.8 percent with open unemployment of about 20 percent among the educated youth. In addition, majority in urban India work in the informal sector and are thus exposed to a host of risks and precarities. This, along with continued ecological degradation and crumbling urban infrastructure needs urgent attention. To address…

Congress President, Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Monday that he would make mayoral elections direct, since good leaders are needed to build smart cities. The Congress party has been sharing its key features on social media. The tweet seems like another promise in the direction of smooth urban governance. Real smart cities are built by good leaders. To improve quality of life in our cities we will move to directly elected Mayors with 5 yr terms & elected councils. Administration will be run by multidisciplinary teams of specialists & experts accountable to the Mayor & council. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April…