Governance

The six-term MLA, Ramalinga Reddy was first elected from Jayanagar for four times. Then in 2008 when the cosntituency boundaries changed due to delimitation, he shifted to BTM layout which he currently represents for the second time. Reddy was the Home Minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, a berth he was given after the resignation of G Parameshwar. Before that he handled the Ministry of Transport. He started his political career as a municipal corporator in 1983. His first stint as a minister started in the Veerappa Moily Cabinet as Minister for Finance and Heavy and Medium Industries. He has held…

Politics did not happen to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Karnataka Convener Prithvi Reddy intentionally. He was a part of Corruption Saku campaign in 2010 (which later merged with India Against Corruption) with no aspirations other than to reduce corruption. He co-founded Smart Vote, a movement to encourage voter registration and participation in issue-based politics. He runs his father’s school of 450 students in Addagal village, Kolar District. Reddy then co-founded Swabal, an initiative to provide practical skills to high school dropouts with guaranteed employment.   He became AAP’s national executive member in 2013. Now he is contesting from Sarvagna Nagar,…

India’s road safety crisis is no secret anymore. The numbers are so staggering that they could cause a few accidents from shock, if you just read them! At least 4,80,652 accidents led to 1,50,785 deaths in 2016, which means 413 people died everyday in 1,317 road accidents. There were at least 17 deaths in 55 accidents every hour. However, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act was passed by the Lok Sabha last year, but never got the nod from the Rajya Sabha, which got adjourned indefinitely this year. Meanwhile, a recent report shows that most accidents in India involve “newest vehicles”!…

Sathish Reddy, a two-term MLA from Bommanahalli, has a number of infamous spots in his constituency. The notoriously congested Silk Board junction, Karnataka Composting Development Corporation (KCDC), Agara lake and Puttenhalli lakes are a few of them. His constituency also makes news every time there are heavy showers, inundating the residences with water some times as high as four feet. During one such episode, the MLA got into a verbal altercation with a senior forest official Deepika Bajpai and had threatened to slap her which made headlines. Reddy has an agricultural background and is known to have real estate dealings.…

S Raghu started his political career as a municipal corporator from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1996. He has won twice from his current constituency of C V Raman Nagar which is reserved under SC/ST category. Previously he represented the Shanthinagar constituency. Some of Bengaluru’s most discussed land marks and civic problems fall under the C V Raman constituency. Public transport/connectivity to the high density Bagmane Tech Park; the cleaning up of the 45 acre Kaggadaspura Lake; portions of Indiranagar which are still reeling under rampant commercialisation are among a few noted ones. A lot of highly sensitive defence…

Renuka Vishwanathan belongs to a rare breed of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from Karnataka. It goes without saying that she has many broken barriers to her credit. She was a member of the Planning Commission of India, and the first woman Deputy Commissioner in Karnataka posted in Uttara Kannada District, and subsequently posted in Dharward District for a second term. She was also the first woman to become the Managing Director of the Karnataka State Finance Corporation, and the first woman Transport Commissioner of Karnataka. Before retiring she held the coveted post of Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat of…

Bhaskar Prasad is a candidate contesting in Mahadevapura, from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Gauri Mullerpatten and Shravya Sharath interview him, to understand his views on various issues related to Mahadevapura. You are a first-time contestant in Mahadevapura. People don't seem to know much about you. Could you please tell us a little bit about your background, education etc? I have a diploma in Electrical Engineering and a diploma in Performing Arts. These are my educational qualifications. It is not that the people of Mahadevapura don’t know me. For the past 20 years, I have been working for people. In the…

R Ashok, one of BJP’s most recognisable Vokkaliga faces, is a five-time MLA. He currently represents Padmanabhnagar constituency in South Bengaluru, but was first elected from the Uttarahalli constituency in 1997. Ashok has held multiple ministerial berths in the Bharatiya Janata Party government between 2008 and 2013, including Home and Transport. He was one of the Deputy Chief Ministers of the State when the BJP government was in power. He claims credit for modernising the Transport department with enhanced of technology during his tenure as its minister. In the recent times he has been in the news for Bagair Hukum…

Several hundred pourakarmikas gathered at the BBMP Head Office today to demand four months salary. The BBMP, which is the principal employer of these pourakarmikas decided to pay the workers directly from January 2018, and to rid the contract-system that was prevalent earlier. The biometric system that was put in place to identify the number of workers in the city, so that the BBMP can pay them directly has been ridden with discrepancies, thus creating a situation where powrakarmikas who turn up for work every day were marked absent and had their salaries cut. The State Government and BBMP also…

Nalapad Ahmed Haris, the two-term MLA from Shantinagar has most of Bengaluru’s Central Business District fall under him. He started his political career as a member of Youth Congress. He is a first generation MLA, whose father N A Mohammed also had tried his luck in politics. He contested elections from Indian National Congress (INC) in Kasaragod constituency in Kerala during 2004 parliamentary elections, but lost to CPM candidate P Karunakaran. However, Nalapad Senior had laid the foundation for the successful Nalapad Group of Companies which also brought the family close politicians and political parties. He originally hailed from Kerala…