BENGALURU: Many city corporators are pitching hard to get tickets to contest the Assembly elections. As expected, the competition is at its peak in the three major political parties, the Congress, BJP and JD(S).
At least 12 corporators, including Mayor Sampath Raj, are aspirants for Assembly seat tickets this time. Sampath Raj wants to contest on a Congress ticket from the Pulakeshinagar constituency, which is reserved. Congress is seen to have an advantage in the constituency because of its Muslim majority population. Former mayors Shantakumari and Katte Sathyanarayana are also seeking tickets from the BJP. The other frontrunners are: Umesh Shetty (BJP), Manjula Narayanaswamy (JD-S), Poornima Srinivas (BJP), Yuvaraj (Congress), Muja-hid Pasha (JD-S) and N. Nagaraj (BJP). During the last Assembly elections in 2013, former mayor G. Padmavathi, a corporator from Prakash ward, had contested from the Rajajinagar constituency on a Congress ticket, but lost. She is again trying for a ticket from the same constituency. Most of these corporators are making a beeline before their political godfathers to try their luck in the upcoming polls. It is no secret that these aspirants have to shell out large amounts of money to get tickets and then to run their election campaigns.
During the last polls, corporators Byrati Basavaraj (K.R. Puram) and Muniratna Naidu (Rajarajeshwarinagar) contested successfully.
