Mysore highway man’s new route: says vote national, not regional

Political parties in Karnataka are still waiting to kickstart their campaigns for the Assembly elections next month but one person...

Political parties in Karnataka are still waiting to kickstart their campaigns for the Assembly elections next month but one person, though he is not in the electoral fray, has been campaigning with such gusto that even the Election Commission has begun taking note.

Ashok Kheny, best known as the managing director of the company implementing the country’s first private infrastructure project, the Rs 2,250 crore-Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), has been crisscrossing Karnataka, asking voters to exercise their right to vote but to choose national parties over regional parties.

Even before major parties could dole out sops to voters, Ashok Kheny, whose cousin Sanjay Kheny is contesting the polls on a BJP ticket from the Bidar South constituency, has promised cows for widows in all villages in the state, sewing machines for women and hostels for poor rural youth under the aegis of an Ashok Kheny Fans Association.

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Kheny’s campaign has however been viewed in some circles as an attempt to fight former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda — seen as the biggest obstacle to the litigation-mired BMIC project — and to prevent his Janata Dal Secular from being in a position of power again.

With complaints going to the Election Commission regarding Kheny’s campaign and promises, Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar has called for reports from districts where the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) chief has travelled in recent days.

“If any violations have occurred, we will take action,” said the electoral officer, acknowledging that proxy campaigns against individuals are liable for scrutiny.

Kheny has told the Election Commission he is only exercising his right to freedom of speech and expression by urging voters to turn out in large numbers to ensure a stable government in Karnataka.

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“What I am telling people at public meetings around the state is that only national parties will have the national interest at heart. Regional parties have only local and family interests. This, in the long run, hurts the national interest,” Kheny said.

Engaged in battle on several fronts with the JDS leader, Kheny said: “Deve Gowda is trying to shut me down but the Election Commission has rejected the complaints. The campaign I have taken out is not new. It has been going on for the last two years. People are only noticing it now.”

The BMIC project, meant to create a 111-km expressway and infrastructure corridor between Bangalore and Mysore, has been mired in controversy despite the Supreme Court ordering its implementation as originally conceived.

Deve Gowda has accused the company of availing excess land for the project to cash in on soaring land prices in the Bangalore-Mysore corridor.

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During the tenure of Gowda’s son H D Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2006, an attempt was made to introduce a legislation to allow government takeover of the BMIC project. But when the BJP, then ally of the JDS, did not back the move, the proposal was finally dropped.

“My campaign has nothing to do with the project. That is a different issue. This is something personal that I want to do to help the poor. My campaign will not end with the elections. It will go on for the next five years,” said Kheny.