Bengaluru: Karnataka's first woman collector and a former member of the Planning Commission, Mrs Renuka Vishwanathan, who is making her election debut on an AAP ticket these assembly polls, says the party is contesting to win the elections. Amidst all the rhetorical speeches and sloganeering, she believes it is the AAP, which has compelled other parties to talk about real issues.
"One of the major issues is corruption. In Shantinagar we have a BJP candidate, who fought the last election on JD(S) ticket and a former BJP leader contesting on a JD(S) ticket this time. Money is one of the main reasons for this and the people know it," she said. Disagreeing strongly with Home Minister, Ramalinga Reddy comment that the AAP was contesting the elections as a tokenism, Mrs Vishwanathan said she understood the constituency and began her campaigning much before any other candidate. “The response from the voters has been overwhelming. We will release our ward-wise manifesto on Saturday," she added.
Ms Vishwanathan claimed that on the day that a case was registered against Congress MLA, N A Harris's son, voters were afraid to even come out of their homes to speak to her in the constituency.
"Before the case was registered, his men snatched the mobile phones of my workers but after it was done there was no fear. This misbehaviour cannot continue, " she added, indicating that his son’s behaviour was all the more reason to take on Mr Haris.
As for her plans for the constituency, she said she would like to emulate the AAP's transformation of government schools in Delhi in Bengaluru. "Mr Haris runs a school in Dubai. Why cannot he do the same here, especially when his government is in power? Here in Karnataka, the budget on education has not been increased by a single rupee," she deplored.
