BENGALURU: The exercise of delimitation of BBMP wards has seen several of them being named after historical, mythological and cultural icons of Karnataka. The draft delimitation report was released on Thursday.
Prominent among the wards named after the personalities are Dr Rajkumar (146), Kanneshwara Rama (36), Veera Madakari (37), Ranadheera Kanteerava (43), Veera Sindhura Lakshmana (44) Vijayanagara Krishna Devaraya (45), M Visvesvaraya (46) and Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (47). Ward 208 has been named Deendayal, after Deendayal Upadhyaya, one of the founders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP’s previous incarnation. Ward 169 has been named Devaraj Urs, after the former Congress CM who is credited with ensuring that backward classes got their share of power in Karnataka.
While naming wards after technocrat-statesman M Visvesvaraya and thespian Dr Rajkumar could appear to be targeted at Kannada enthusiasts, the occasion has also been used to dig into Karnataka’s history to honour personalities like Madakari Nayaka, a Chitradurga ruler, and Ranadheera Kanteerava, a sobriquet for Mysuru king Kanteerava Narasaraja I.
Indian history too has been given its due: Ward 39 has been named after Chanakya and 40 after Chhatrapati Shivaji. Lesser-known characters from the freedom struggle have been resurrected: Kanneshwara Rama, a burglar-turned-freedom fighter, and Veera Sindhura Lakshmana, also a revolutionary freedom fighter. Naming wards after historical characters is not new, though the scale this time is certainly big. During the previous renaming exercise, ward 1 of BBMP was named after Kempegowda, who is described as the chieftain who built Bengaluru. The ward is in Yelahanka, where it’s believed Kempegowda’s origins lay.
