Karnataka

It’s a one-man show all the way

Lending an ear: KPCC president M Mallikarjun Kharge interacting with women in Hungunta village during his campaign in Gulbarga district on Thursday.

WODDARAWADI (GULBARGA DISTRICT): President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who is for the first time fighting an election outside his traditional Gurmitkal Assembly Constituency, is moved by the plight of the people in Chitapur Assembly Constituency without basic amenities unlike Gurmitkal which he turned out as a model constituency.

As the vehicle in which Mr. Kharge drove past the bumpy roads all through, a small crowd of around 100 people who had gathered near the entrance of this small village, having a voting strength of around 800 votes, waved the vehicle to stop.

These people, including women, did not carry any garland or party flags and an aged Bismilla Khan told Mr. Kharge: “We are happy that you are contesting from our constituency and at least now we hope that the doors of development will open for us.”

Woddarawadi does not have a permanent source of drinking water and the existing source of Mini Water Supply Scheme dries up every summer and the people have to walk miles to fetch water. Mr. Kharge proceeded further from the village after promising the residents that he would do whatever possible for the village and required some time for developing constituency like Gurmitkal.

“I do not have a magic lamp by which I can change everything overnight in Chitapur and I require some time and definitely this constituency will witness the change immediately after the election,” Mr. Kharge told The Hindu during his whirlwind tour of the constituency touching every village and addressing public meetings and conducting padayatras despite having knee problem.

It is a one-man show as Mr. Kharge is accompanied by a few leaders from Chitapur and no party bigwigs are campaigning with him.

Mr. Kharge’s next stop was at Hungunta, a famous pilgrimage centre where the temple of Goddess Chandralamba is situated and frequented by thousands of pilgrims every year. The villagers poured out their tales of woes. Although the village has a population of more than 7,000, it does not have a good approach road, does not have a veterinary hospital nor an approach road to the temple of Goddess Chandralamba and does not have an assured drinking water facility.

Mr. Kharge told the villagers that he had deliberately chosen Chitapur as his Assembly constituency to develop it on the lines of Gurmitkal and said: “There were offers not only from my earlier constituency Gurmitkal, but from 16 other Assembly segments for me to contest in the State. But I chose Chitapur with a purpose and help me to fulfil this purpose.”

He said that a misinformation campaign was being carried out by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chitapur that if he (Mr. Kharge) was elected, the upper castes would be harassed with atrocities cases and pointed out that in his 37-year long association with Gurmitkal, there was a seldom a complaint of harassment of upper castes in the constituency, which was dominated by the powerful Reddy Lingayat community.

Mr. Kharge, who on an average covers 20 villages a day, on Thursday visited Bankur, Malagatti, Ravoor, Baladagi, halakatti, Ladlapur, Nalwar, Kollur, Sannati and few other villages.

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