Karnataka: A strong electoral win and an interactive flood-mapping app

The Janata Dal (Secular) losing the Channapatna by-election in Karnataka was not just the loss of a by-poll for the party — its significance lies in the fact that it is a Vokkaliga bastion and a stronghold of Deve Gowda’s party. Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar won over his JD(S) rival by over 25,000 votes, which is considerable for an assembly election. This keenly-fought election was necessitated by the resignation of H.D. Kumaraswamy, former PM Deve Gowda’s son, following his election to the Lok Sabha; he is now a Union minister.

The Congress candidate’s win against a formidable coalition of the BJP and the JD(S) underscores the growing reach of D.K. Shivakumar, the powerful Congress deputy chief minister. His opponent was no less than Nikhil Kumaraswamy (H.D. Kumaraswamy’s son) for whom Channapatna was almost a pocket borough.

For Nikhil Kumaraswamy, it was a third defeat at the polls; his campaign rested on asking voters to see through the tactics of his opponents who had ensnared him in a chakravyuh through dubious means.

Nikhil Kumaraswamy fought a high voltage campaign with both his father and grandfather campaigning for him. He hoped to cash in on the Vokkaliga vote, which traditionally goes to the JD(S), but was up against a spirited campaign by Yogeshwar, a five-time MLA who positioned himself as an agent of change.

Having recently moved from the BJP to the Congress, Yogeshwar worked tirelessly to champion the cause of the Congress in promoting infrastructural progress and social welfare schemes in the region.

Channapatna falls under the Ramanagara district on the Bengaluru–Mysuru highway, which most people drive past on the spanking new toll highway without even noticing. Film aficionados, especially older ones, may recall that this is where one of Bollywood’s most iconic films, Sholay, was shot.

The Vokkaligas, a community of land cultivators and warriors, are a powerful community spread over Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; typical surnames include Gowda, Hegde and Gounder (the latter especially in TN). Though they are categorised as a forward caste, some sub-sections fall under the Backward Classes label. Along with the Lingayats, the Vokkaligas were the major landowners in Karnataka; they were also part of several ruling dynasties in the region.

Yogeshwar’s win represents a personal triumph for Shivakumar, the state Congress chief and party powerhouse, a businessman and one of the richest politicians in the country. He and his brother D.K. Suresh, an MP from Bengaluru Rural constituency, are also Vokkaligas, and beating the JD(S) in one of its strongholds speaks of the duo’s growing clout.

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With the loss of Channapatna, the JD(S) has now lost all the assembly constituencies in Ramanagara district. Along with Channapatna, the Congress also defeated the BJP to win two other by-elections from Shiggaon in Haveri district and Sandur (the mining town in Ballari district), suggesting that its assembly election win was indeed built on a strong foundation. Shivakumar led the Congress charge; in Channapatna, he took it upon himself to win the battle for the Vokkaliga vote.

The results are an embarrassment for the JD(S), which has been steadily losing ground in Karnataka. The number of its legislators now stands at 18, and there is speculation that some JD(S) MLAs may join the Congress.

Meanwhile, it might interest readers to know that both Yogeshwar and Nikhil Kumaraswamy are actors-turned-politicians.

New tunnel to cut airport commute time

One of Bengaluru’s biggest headaches is its traffic, as any resident will tell you. Its streets are choked with vehicles, and it seems to take forever to get from point A to point B. This is best exemplified by the time it takes to drive to the airport in Devanahalli — you have to factor in about an hour-and-a-half to two hours to get there from the city.

But things should improve — especially for those getting to the airport from the suburbs of Whitefield or Sarjapura — with a new tunnel being planned to cut driving time to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). The Eastern Connectivity Tunnel is part of an ambitious Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) project, budgeting around Rs 16,500 crore to address the needs of the city’s aviation demand. The idea is to cut congestion at the Hebbal flyover, a critical choke point on the way to the airport, by diverting about 30 per cent of the traffic headed to the eastern suburbs and thereby reduce travel time to the airport by at least 30 minutes.

Construction is due to begin soon, and should be completed in about three years.

Interactive city flood-risk map

Two innovative young IT professionals based in Bangalore have come up with Blr Water Log, a novel flood threat app based on the city’s water flow patterns. The map is hosted on their site and shows how the city’s topography dictates the flow of water and therefore the risk of flooding in particular areas.

Aman Bhargava is a data visualisation expert and Vivek Mathew is a software engineer who contributes to Open Street Maps. They used digital elevation maps from the Copernicus project (an EU earth observation initiative) to develop the map. Areas shadowed blue show water accumulation, with darker areas denoting possible flood risk areas such as Ejipura, Koramangala and Manyata Tech Park.

When users click on a particular section on the map, links to relevant news articles on flooding in those areas come up. Not only is this useful to the residents, the developers say their intention is to spark interest in urban drainage and water flow patterns, and stimulate others to contribute to work which could help in flood mitigation.

Since the project is open source, Bhargava and Mathew point out that it could be adapted to other cities like Chennai and Mumbai.

Immersive stargazing experience

A new planetarium is coming up in the city of Mysuru, with the promise of a totally new and immersive experience for visitors. Touted as the world’s first tilted dome, it is a joint effort by the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics and the University of Mysuru, whose Chamundi Hills campus is the site for the project.

Estimated at Rs 90 crore and expected be ready for visitors by September 2025, the French firm, RSA Cosmos, is building the planetarium through its local affiliate.

Institute director Annapurni Subramaniam said that unlike traditional full dome planetaria which use projectors, the new planetarium will use LED lights to create amazingly realistic views of the stars. With the 15-metre dome tilted at an angle of 15 degrees to achieve this experience, viewers will be able to sit back and enjoy the show without having to crane their necks. Now that’s a starry, starry night worth waiting for.