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Karnataka elections: Wife leads campaign for candidate husband barred from entering constituency

India’s election commission officials along with police frisk vehicles of commuters at a highway checkpost in Bengaluru on March 30, 2023, after May 10 was announced as the date for Karnataka state legislative assembly elections. (Photo by MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

In an unusual campaign ahead of the May 10 elections in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, wife of a candidate has chipped in to woo the voters in the constituency since her husband has been barred from entering it.

Shivaleela Kulkarni of the opposition Indian National Congress has taken up the responsibility of canvassing for votes in the Dharwad rural constituency despite not being a candidate herself since her husband Vinay Kulkarni, a former state minister, was arrested and remanded in judicial custody in November 2020 in connection with the murder of a local leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in June 2016.

He was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on the condition that he would not be allowed to enter Dharwad, the district known as the cultural capital of Karnataka, without the permission of the jurisdictional court.

The jurisdictional special court in Bengaluru had rejected his request for entry, after which he had approached the high court where his petition was dismissed by Justice K Natarajan last week.

With her husband barred from entering the constituency, Shivaleela is leading his campaign in the constituency and talking about the development works he initiated.

Kulkarni’s opponent, sitting lawmaker and BJP candidate Amrut Desai on the other hand is confident of retaining the seat on the back of development works done by him.

Often facing attack over the murder case against her husband, Shivaleela counters it with the refrain that “people who are part of centre are also facing criminal charges but ruling the country”.

“My husband, Vinay Kulkarni, is not in the constituency as he is facing a case since two years, I have been working in the constituency… He has done lots of things. Agriculture is the main source of the people here and he has done lots of work for the people,” she told PTI.

People in Dharwad rural want to see Vinay return to his land, Shivaleela said as she claimed that no development has happened in the assembly in last five years.

She said her husband is putting up at a place which is at the border of the constituency. He is staying there and everybody, including the youth and elderly, are going there to meet him and he is also connecting with people virtually, Shivaleela said.

Lashing out at the BJP, she alleged that the party is only supporting people like Adani and Ambani. “They are supporting the business class. All of the constituency people know that what development has been done here,” she said.

The reality is that the BJP has not done anything for development while her husband brought funds for the constituency, she claimed.

Speaking to PTI in Inamhongal in Belgaum district of Karnataka, Vinay said his wife is leading the charge on his behalf. “This election is completely different. This is a big turning point in my life. All the people are supporting me and I will win this election very easily,” he claimed. Kulkarni, a two-time member of the state assembly, said he has lost only one election and is confident this time as people are expressing support for him in large numbers.

(With PTI inputs)

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