Despite a few anxious moments when he was trailing during the counting of votes, BJP’s P.C. Mohan has been elected as Member of Parliament for the fourth term from the Bengaluru Central constituency. He defeated Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan by a margin of 32,707 votes.
In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Mohan shared his vision and ideas to develop Bengaluru as a global city, and spoke about lake development and speedy completion of ongoing projects such as suburban rail among his top priorities.
What are the major factors that worked out to bring you your fourth term?
I am thankful to the voters who elected me for the fourth time. They have complete confidence and trust in me and they have recognised my work for 20 years. Apart from this, the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for the last 10 years also helped in my victory.
We could bring the dream of Bengalureans to have a suburban railway project, metro rail expansion, Smart City, housing for the poor, and other pro-people Union government-sponsored projects to Bengaluru. All these factors worked for me.
Compared to the last elections, your winning margin has dipped this time. Was there any anti-incumbency?
The Congress candidate has got around 10,000 more votes each in the Assembly constituencies of Chamarajpet and Shivajinagar. That is why my winning margin has come down.
What are your plans to develop Bengaluru?
I will take steps to complete the suburban rail project as early as possible and I am also planning to bring more funds for the Smart City project and urban poor housing scheme. Along with these, I will concentrate on lake development projects as there are many waterbodies in my constituency.
Flooding is common during heavy rain in eastern parts of Bengaluru, which come under your constituency. What plans do you have to resolve this problem?
Encroachment of rajakaluves is the major problem for flooding during heavy rain in the eastern parts of Bengaluru. The encroachments will be cleared on priority. Once they are cleared, the problem will be resolved.
Congress leaders have been alleging that BJP MPs are scared to ask for funds for development projects in the State, including Bengaluru. What do you have to say about this?
More than ₹1,00,000 crore has been given for Bengaluru development in the last 10 years by the Narendra Modi government. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders are speaking against the Union government because of their desperation. The people of Bengaluru have not elected even a single MP from the Congress for the last four terms. The Congress’ allegations are baseless.
There is an allegation against BJP MPs that they are supporting the imposition of Hindi on the State through various manners ...
It is untrue. The Congress has not been in power at the Centre for 10 years and they will not come back to power in the future also. So, they try to bring small issues into the mainstream. There is no intention of Hindi imposition on Karnataka from the Union government. Instead, it is giving importance to regional languages, including in the education system. In Parliament also, they have given importance to translating all debates and discussions into regional languages, including Kannada.
