No sewing up in MLA-corporator war

Reflecting the growing animosity between MLAs and corporators over securing an opportunity to contest in the upcoming Assembly elections, Mahalakshmi Layout MLA NL Narendra Babu and Nagapura ward corporator and former deputy mayor S Harish engaged in a verbal altercation on Tuesday over distribution of sewing machines supplied by the BBMP.

Harish alleged that on Monday Babu and his followers created a ruckus over distribution of sewing machines and got the godown, where the machines are kept, sealed with the help of the police.

“The problem started when I defeated Babu’s brother Ravishankar in the corporation election. Now as assembly elections are nearing, he thinks I may join the race to be elected as MLA. So he is politicising the issue,” Harish told media persons on Tuesday.

Harish said sewing machines have not been distributed for the past six years. “We identified 198 beneficiaries in the ward and of which 33 were found to be fake beneficiaries and supporters of the MLA. So we sent registered letters to the genuine beneficiaries, asking them to collect the machines. We distributed 98 machines till September 23. On Monday we could not distribute machines as I had to participate in a function to protest the supply of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. Babu called BBMP (west) joint commissioner and other officials and created a ruckus.  He called the police who sealed the godown,” he said.

“From 2006, Babu has not been able to distribute a single sewing machine. If he is concerned about the poor, let him provide sewing machines from the `1 crore MLA fund. All his funds are diverted to the zilla panchayat. He and his  brother are looting public money,” Harish said. The corporator asked Babu to get the godown opened. “Otherwise, I will get it opened with the help of the BBMP officials,” he said.

When contacted, Babu said: “On Monday, beneficiaries came from various places to collect the sewing machines. The corporator in a way harassed the people by not providing the machines. The machines were stored in the godown and locked by the corporator. He cannot get away from his responsibility claiming that he had some personal commitment. Harish should have asked BBMP officials to distribute the machines,”

This is not the first time Harish and Babu clashed with each other. A few months ago, Padma, a BBMP tailoring instructor, filed a complaint against Harish, alleging that she had been abused and threatened by the corporator.

Harish said Padma acted at the behest of Babu and that the allegation was politically motivated.

The tussle between the two started after the corporator started nurturing plans to secure candidature to contest in the next assembly elections. As Nagapura ward comes under Mahalakshmi Layout assembly constituency and Harish is the only BJP corporator in the constituency, he is seen as a rival to Babu.