Rowdies in Bangalore try political tricks to escape long arm of law

Several rowdies are seeking refuge in politics to escape the long arm of law. And parties welcome them to add more muscle to their ranks.

One among them was Diwana Ali, who was shot at and hacked to death at Yarabnagar on January 16. While a few of them won tickets to contest polls, others came out in support of politicians.

Ali, rowdy-sheeted in 1996, successfully contested the BBMP polls last year on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket. After winning the election, Yarabnagar residents claimed he turned out be a saviour for them.

Like Ali, as many as 23 rowdies won political patronage in the city.
Some of them, fearing a backlash from the electorate due to their nefarious activities, preferred to remain behind the scene and made their relatives run the polls.

Rowdy-sheeted Ishtiyaq Ahmed alias Ishtiaq alias Pahlwan’s wife Farida Ishtiyaq represents Bharathinagar in the BBMP council as an independent. Palaniyamma is the elder sister of Yelumalai of KG Halli; Kadiresh of Cottonpet sent his wife Rekha to the BBMP on a BJP ticket; and Srirampura’s Chakravarthy DJ alias Christopher alias Sakkare’s wife Elizabeth was elected on a Congress ticket.

JJ Nagar’s Areif Pasha was not that successful. His wife Zarina Begum and son Imran Pasha contested the 2010 BBMP elections with JD(S) support, but were rejected by the voters. Meenakshi, sister-in-law of KP Agrahara’s Krishna alias Magadi Road Krishna, bit the dust as an independent candidate.

Rowdy Hanume Gowda, 37, preferred to contest the taluk panchayat election in 2010 and won the confidence of voters in Chikajala. Shakeel, rowdy-sheeted in 1999, is a corporator from Bharatinagar.

Sampangi alias Raj from Cottonpet, and Chandrashekar alias Appoda from Chamrajpet had earlier represented their wards in the BBMP.

Kutti alias Arun Kumar of Pulikeshinagar, now in judicial custody after his arrest under Goonda Act, tried to win a party ticket, but was denied the same.

Halasuru’s Malli alias Mallika alias Mallikarjuna, 42, rowdy-sheeted for the past 30 years, made repeated attempts to win BBMP elections with BJP support. He never got the people’s mandate.

Besides Malli, Praveen of SR Nagar, Velayudhan alias Vediyappa alias Vedi of Kalsipalya, Kiran alias Gooli of Magadi Road, Bomb Naga of Srirampura, Tanveer from Kumaraswamy Layout and Sheikh Ahmed Asgar alias Mahim of Siddapura, too had contested the polls as independents and lost.

The credit for backing the only woman rowdy goes to JD(S). Marimuthu of KG Halli, now a former corporator, contested under the JD(S) flag. Others who had contested the polls were Prakash of Rajgopalanagar (BJP) and Shiva alias Lambu Shiva of Peenya, and Muniswamy S (Congress), who tried his luck in the zilla panchayat election from Kadugodi.