The rail coach factory for which foundation stone had been laid in 2014, between Srinivasapura and Mulbagil, but scrapped later, is one of the many instances of broken promises for Kolar, says Raghunandan Reddy, a retired teacher in Srinivasapura, which is famous for mangoes. “There are no employment avenues as there are no factories. Promises of setting up mango processing centre has not been realised,” he points out at election promises of the past for Kolar remaining on paper.
Congress here has fielded K.V. Gowtham to take on M. Mallesh Babu of the Janata Dal (Secular) in the Kolar Lok Sabha constituency.
Mr. Gowtham’s candidature has been seen as a compromise between the Congress factions led by former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar and seven-time MP and Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa. The deeply divided Congress’s Kolar unit witnessed a rebellion of sorts with five of its lawmakers threatening to resign in protest against moves of Mr. Muniyappa to field his son-in-law. The sulking Minister is yet to hit the campaign trail though the Congress posed a united front bringing all squabbling leaders on stage at Malur where Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally.
