Congress candidate from Basavanagudi constituency, UB Venkatesh, is greeted by supporters after filing his nomination papers for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, in Bengaluru on April 17, 2023. Photo Credit: PTI
The Congress candidate from the seat, UB Venkatesh, said in an interview that considering Basavanagudi constituency as a BJP stronghold is like living in a ‘fool’s paradise’ and that eventually hard-working people will stand strong. Hindu,
Excerpts:
Why did you choose the Basavanagudi constituency, a BJP bastion in recent years?
The Congress has appointed me to look after the poor and needy in Basavanagudi. I am the first person to get government relief fund as a Congressman in a BJP constituency. About 78 people have died here from Kovid. I visited all the affected families, took them to Vidhana Soudha and got them relief money from the government. I have distributed 23,500 Covid relief kits and conducted vaccination programs at around 96 locations. My party supported me to focus on Basavanagudi constituency. You said [this seat is] “Citadel of BJP” – it’s all a fool’s paradise, nothing is strong. BJP stands for promises and I stand for development of people and constituency.
What kind of challenges are you looking forward to in this constituency?
I am not expecting any special challenge here. People know me and I know them. I have worked hard in this constituency. I have got the blessings of the people here and you will see the results on 13th May. People are looking for change.
Around 22,000 families were affected by the scams involving various cooperative societies, including Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank Regularity, Sri Vashishtha Credit Souharda Sahakari Limited (SVCSSL) and Kanva Souharda Co-op Limited, etc. Are those affected happy with the way the issue has been handled?
Basavanagudi was earlier famous for Doddabasavanna, Dodda Ganapati, Kumaraswamy Temple etc. Nowadays it has become famous for bank scams. As an MLC, I have been fighting this issue in the House. Whenever we ask the minister responsible for cooperatives, he says Rs 1,000 crore has been seized. I wonder why then it was not passed on to the investors and their losses were not compensated. The CID also said that the government seized ₹1,000 crore, but they do not have any documents of the investors.
I am insisting for CBI inquiry and the Cooperation Minister also held a press conference and said that there will be a CBI inquiry. But nothing has happened yet. Thousands of families lost their hard earned money, sadly some depositors even died without proper medical care due to lack of funds.
What difference are you promising to the voters here?
I don’t want to make any promises. It is BJP’s job to make promises. We are here to work, mostly in the areas of school and higher education, traffic management and creating comfortable public infrastructure for senior citizens in the constituency. Senior citizens constitute 30% to 40% of the population of the constituency. We had organized a dialogue for senior citizens and they raised various issues. We have plans to create a recreational club for senior citizens so that they can spend quality time with their age group, read, play and engage in entertainment.