Ramesh Ramanathan in Mint:
“When S.M. Krishna lost the Karnataka state elections in 2004, most pundits suggested that this was due to his focus on the urban voter….
“What a difference four years can make. As we turn into the home stretch of the 2008 elections, urban development and urban politics have come out of the shadows to play a prime role in electoral fortunes.
“Credit the Election Commission (EC) and its delimitation work. Karnataka is the first state to go to polls after the electoral map was redrawn based on the 2001 census, and the urban shift is massive. Bangalore has gone from 16 seats in the 2004 state assembly to 28 seats this time, a jump of 75% in political representation. This shift is only the beginning of an irreversible trend. Karnataka was 34% urban in 2001 and—going by national trends—will see decadal urban growth of at least 30% and urban share increase of 1.5% every year.“The implication? Demographics drive politics. Urban areas will act as relentless political magnets, drawing power from the rural areas, as people migrate from farm to factory and service-based livelihoods. Karnataka is just the first domino—we will see this in every election to follow, to a lesser or greater degree.”
Read the full article: On political climate change
To exploit this situation, the middle classes need a party that is decidedly middle class as against Hindutva-who-will-also-cater-to-bigotry-of-the-middle-class (BJP) or middle-class-because-SM-Krishna-is-in-the-party(Congress). Both of them will use bangalore to get the necessary seats and then go about pandering to the Bellary mine owners’ interests, not to mention the interests of the MLAs elected.
Alok , if the BJP and Congres are to be shown the door we are left only with the Most corrupt family in Independent India .Not a good sign.BTW are you a candidate from that Party ??
Alok, what about middle class- in the name of- farmer party- of the the father sons?
I would say that the reason for urban attention is the English media again. That is as far as they can get. Its a pity that the regional media’s work is not highlighted by forums like this. Or it could be that the regional media has got so critical and satirical that it does not make interesting reading. Nothing stops Udaya/etv Kannada/ZeeKannada/TV9 from getting politicians together and discussing local issues.
Aah the joys of delimitation.
The wikipedia entry for ‘gerrymandering’ has this caveat:
‘This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
With delimitation we can add an Indian angle to the practise of gerrymandering. It will be interesting to see how clever politicians use this as another weapon in their electoral arsenal.