Hunsur voters not impressed by promise of a new district

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The BJP candidate A.H. Vishwanath’ dream of carving out an area of political sphere for himself by creating a new district of Hunsur by bifurcating Mysuru has failed to enamour the voters.

Mr. Vishwanath was trounced by the Congress candidate H.P. Manjunath, thus dashing the former’s new-found desire to hive off Hunsur revenue sub-division from Mysuru and upgrade it to the status of a district ostensibly for better administration and development.

Mysuru district has two sub-divisions. Mysuru sub-division comprises the taluks of Mysuru, T.Narsipur and Nanjangud. Hunsur sub-division comprises the taluks of H.D.Kote, Sargur, Hunsur, Periyapatna and K.R.Nagar. The promise was to hive out Hunsur sub-division and upgrade it to a district.

In the run up to the byelections, Mr. Vishwanath raked up the issue with the promise that the new district would be named after the former Chief Minister and champion of the backward classes D. Devaraj Urs.

This was a calculated move as Devaraj Urs hailed from Hunsur and Mr. Vishwanath expected this to strike a chord with the voters who, as the results proved, were not enamoured by his ‘vision’.

For Mr.Vishwanath – who was projected as the key architect for the collapse of the coalition government – the creation of a new district was the only selling point and the main plank during campaigning. But his political opponents saw it as a ‘political gimmick’ and accused him of never raising the issue during his tenure as the Hunsur MLA (elected in 2018 Assembly elections)

Not a referendum

Not withstanding the byelection results, a section of the people including a few NGOs have averred that the byelection was not a referendum for creation of a new district and hence their fight for it will continue.

Though the idea of a separate district is old, it became a talking point for the first time during the just concluded byelections. The argument was that Hunsur could develop better as a new district and if made the administrative headquarters, it could bring in more investment.