Council polls leave independents in the lurch

By A.Jayaram

BANGALORE, JUNE 16. Saturday's elections to six seats in the Legislative Council may go to prove once again the increasing irrelevance of the unattached, if not all independent candidates, even in the constituencies reserved for graduates and teachers. Tomorrow's elections are being held from three graduates' and three teachers' constituencies.

It may be no surprise if candidates fielded by the major political parties or those supported by them emerge victor. In the past, those constituencies had afforded an opportunity to unattached independents to prove their merit and popularity.

One of the reasons for the edging out of the unattached candidates from those constituencies is the high cost of electioneering, especially the hefty increase in postal tariff effected in recent years. A candidate contesting the election from the prestigious Bangalore Graduates' constituency, which has 58,000-odd registered voters, said that it would cost him nearly Rs. 1.2 lakhs to send out one appeal by "Book Post". He was happy that not all the five lakh graduates had registered their names as it would have cost him Rs. 10 lakhs to appeal to them by post. He noted that on the other hand, those fielded by the political parties were sending out three or even four appeals.

Some of the candidates have also suggested amendments to the election law which has laid down that the graduates and teachers have to register their names for every election. There is no permanent vote for them. The Constitution has laid down that in the election of teachers to the Legislative Council, only those teaching in high schools and above are eligible to vote. As very few individual graduates or teachers approach the authorities for registering their names, the political parties or the candidates themselves get the registration done. For an independent candidate, even the registration costs much money. However, a saving feature for the candidates is that there is no ceiling on election expenses for the graduates' and teachers' seats.

The BJP candidate, Mr. Ramachandra Gowda, is faced with a challenge from within the ranks of his own party in the Bangalore Graduates' constituency. His opponents include a retired IAF engineer, Wing Commander H.S.Hande, who is also active in the VHP and social work. Mr. Gowda, who has been an MLC from 1988, is contesting from the seat for the third time. It is being stated that some of the BJP leaders in the State not well disposed towards the State Party President, Mr. B.S.Yediyurappa, are supporting Mr. Hande. The former defence officer has been saying that seats in legislative bodies could not be the preserve of any one leader. The voice of the educated class is being suppressed even in the elections to the Council as they are being "compelled" to vote for candidates offered by the political parties. Wg. Cdr. Hande has proved himself a match to the BJP party machine in registering voters and in campaigning.

Tomorrow's elections also afford an opportunity to the ruling Congress(I) to test its popularity among the educated voters. Only recently, the rural voters expressed their faith in it in the June 2 and 6 elections to the zilla and taluk panchayats. However the Congress(I) has fielded only two candidates, Mr. A.Deve Gowda, from the Bangalore Graduates' constituency, and Mr. Puttasiddashetty, MLC from the South- East Graduates' constituency. In the other four constituencies, North-East Graduates', South West Graduates', South Teachers and South-West Teachers', it is supporting independents.

The graduates' and teachers' seats have always been the weak points of the Congress(I). They were so even in the Seventies when the Congress under the leadership of the Late Devaraj Urs was supreme in the political field of the State with hardly any opposition. Even in those days, those seats had elected Bharatiya Jan Sangh candidates.

Stakes are high for the BJP in the all the six seats. Four of its candidates are MLCs, Dr. M.R.Tanga (N-E Graduates'), Mr. Ramachandra Gowda (Bangalore Graduates'), Mr. D.H.Shankaramurthy (S-W Graduates') and Mr. Balakrishna Bhat (S-W Teachers').

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