Body blow to the Congress? 50,000 Kurubas will boycott Mandya poll

Mysuru: Over 50,000 people of the Kuruba community in K R Nagar taluk have decided to boycott the Mandya Lok Sabha by-poll on November 3.

Speaking to reporters at the Kanaka Guru Peeta in K R Nagar, head of the taluk's Kuruba community association, Shivanna revealed it had decided to boycott the byelection as their villages were being deprived of developmental work. 

"Funds for  developmental work  are not being released to villages which have a large population of Kurubas in KRNagar taluk. The Rs 40 crore released for the community by the previous government in the state are not being utilised," he claimed, alleging that  Minister, Sa Ra Mahesh of the JD(S) was  anti- Kuruba as he believed they had  not voted for him during the last assembly election.

But in Mysuru, former Mayor B L Bhyrappa, of the JD(S) , who is also a Kuruba, told reporters that Mr Mahesh was not against the community as alleged.  "Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and veteran leader, A H Vishwanath are like two eyes of the Kuruba community. And it was Mr Mahesh who brought the latter into the JD(S)," he said. 

Also, denying the allegation of the Kurubas, Mr  Mahesh said  he would speak to the leaders of the community in K R Nagar taluk, and  was confident that it would not boycott the bypoll.