Bangalore: Old township, all dressed up and shipshape

Thanks to the construction of Bangalore International Airport near Devanahalli and the housing boom along the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway, areas that are part of the Yelahanka constituency are among the favoured destinations for both aspiring home owners and commercial establishments.

Realtor hyperactivity in the area which is part of Bangalore’s history, has pushed up prices of land to crores of rupees an acre. Areas such as Sahakarnagar and Judicial Layout are homes to the middle-to-upper income group.

Buzzing with activity today, Yelahanka was one of the oldest townships in Karnataka and was part of Vijayanagara empire. Legend has it that Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bangalore, was born in Yelahanka and was a feudatory of the area during the reign of Krishna Devaraya of Vijayanagar empire.

Till a decade ago, Yelahanka was primarily home to farmers, but its profile has changed a lot with construction of Bangalore International Airport. It had 2.25 lakh voters in 2008 elections. Now, 16,817 eligible voters have enrolled their names.

Yelahanka has a number of lakes to its advantage, the most prominent being the Yelahanka lake. Yelahanka Satellite Town is considered as the best maintained residential areas in Bangalore. By many accounts, the area has the most number of parks in the city. The major roads connecting Yelahanka with the city are Bellary Road, Doddaballapur Road and Yeshwanthpur Road. It houses major security establishments such as the Air Force and BSF stations, and industrial units such as Rail Wheel Factory, Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Gogo International, Federal-Mogul Goetze (India) Limited, Ranflex India Pvt. Ltd. and Hobel Flexibles.

Some of the educational institutions such as the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, BMS Institute of Technology, Seshadripuram College, Reva Engineering College, Ryan International School, Delhi Public School, Poorna Prajna School, Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, NMIT and medical colleges Infant Jesus College of Nursing, SB College of Nursing are in this area.

Yelahanka Old Town is a home for thousands of powerloom weavers  from Andhra Pradesh. With more than 18,000 votes, they are expected to play a key role in the election.
As for candidates, SR Vishwanath, the sitting MLA,  is seeking re-election on a BJP ticket. Gopalakrishna is the Congress candidate and Chandrappa is trying his luck on a JD(S) ticket. The constituency has four BBMP wards - Kempe Gowda, Chowdeswari, Atturu and Yelahanka Satellite Town. All these wards are represented by BJP corporators.

Despite corruption allegations, Vishwanath of BJP is confident of winning election. He cites development works taken up during the last five years as the reason for him to be bullish about the success in the election. “I did a lot for this constituency. I want to do more if they elect me in this election again,’’ said Vishwanath