Bengaluru: Will it be the victory of the Mayors, present and former, these elections? While Mayor Sampath Raj is contesting on a Congress ticket against Mr S Raghu of the BJP, who has already been elected twice from CV Raman Nagar , former Mayor Padmavathi has been fielded by the Congress against former BJP Minister, Suresh Kumar in Rajajinagar. They may be up against some stiff competition in these seasoned BJP leaders, but that doesn’t seem to have dampened their spirt.
Take Mr Sampath Raj, who despite his tough battle against a two- time MLA, believes that his experience as Mayor of the city will come in very handy these elections. “The people of Bengaluru already know me as Mayor and also my work. Name any civic crisis in the city and I have been there at the spot monitoring the situation whether it was waterlogging during the monsoon or a building collapse. My tenure as Mayor has helped me to get to know the city and its issues and connect with the people. I assure them that if I am elected I will resolve their problems,” he told the Deccan Chronicle.
But wasn’t he worried about his strong opposition? Speaking philosophically, the Mayor responded, “We cannot enter a game thinking about how strong or weak the opposition is. We need to simply give our best and we have done this through our door- to -door campaigning, meeting RWAs, and attending public gatherings to hear peoples’ problems and so on. This should be enough for the people to believe in me and I’ll show them what I am made of through my work. The Congress has done exceptionally well in the state without indulging in any corruption and we are sure we will form the government and I too will win and work for the people of CV Raman Nagar.”
Ms Padmavathi too seems equally confident, having come up with various programmes and schemes for youth in her manifesto. “For any candidate to win, he or she must do the ground work and I have done this in Rajajinagar for the past couple of years. My experience as Mayor has helped me gain knowledge about the issues of the city. The opposition has won several times but this time the people want change and see more development,” she declared, signing off with, “I hope people vote for a woman like me. I want to encourage women to come out and share their views and opinions. We need more such women in society.”
