Congress's Rizwan Arshad is one of the younger candidates in the upcoming Karnataka bye-polls. Despite being unsuccessful in his two previous attempts to win a Parliamentary seat, 40-year-old Rizwan, an MLC since 2016, is confident that he can end his losing streak. Three-time MP PC Mohan of the BJP had defeated Rizwan in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the Bengaluru Central seat.
This time, Rizwan is contesting from the Shivajinagar assembly constituency vacated by former minister and veteran Congress politician Roshan Baig. With neither the Congress nor the BJP willing to accommodate Roshan Baig again, Rizwan is set to face Saravan, a former corporator of the BJP and Tanveer Ahmed of the JD(S) among other candidates.
TNM caught up with Rizwan in a telephonic interview, a day ahead of him filing his nomination. Here are a few excerpts.
Compared to Lok Sabha elections, do you see yourself winning in Shivajinagar constituency?
I have contested twice from the Bangalore Central Parliamentary Constituency. Though there was a wave in favour of the BJP I still managed to secure a lead in the Shivajinagar area. I am both a voter and a resident here. The people of Shivajinagar recognise me, similarly, I am also familiar with them. And that is precisely the reason why my party chose me as a candidate for this seat.
What are the challenges you see contesting in a bye-poll as an opposition candidate?
Since this is a bye-election, the BJP will spend huge sums of money but I am very confident that I will be able to overcome all that and emerge victoriously. Although they might use government machinery, the common people will support me.
In the past, you have said Roshan Baig did not support you in campaigning, what role will he play?
I would not like to comment on him now because he is no longer in the fray. When he is not in contention, he is not an issue. My issue is the development of the constituency. People want a new face and a youngster to represent them. My commitment to the people is that I will be that face who will serve them better and work for the development of the constituency.
The BJP has fielded M Saravana, a former corporator. The CM has said he is a favourite as he speaks Tamil. How serious a threat is he to your hopes?
Certainly, he is no threat. My BJP opponent being a corporator earlier has no special significance and his performance as a corporator did not leave a mark. And people who speak Tamil don't vote for the BJP, they will stick with the Congress.
The Congress party, however, doesn't depend on a single community, single religion or culture. And Shivajinagar is a constituency where Tamil, Telugu Malayalam, Kanada, Urdu and English can be heard and it is also multi-religious. Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs stay here. So it's kind of a mini India and Shivajinagar needs a cosmopolitan and urban face, who doesn't limit himself into one language or one religion or one culture.
The government is currently with the BJP, how will you convince people to vote for an opposition candidate?
This government in the last 100 days has failed to address the issues of the people and people want change. People are thinking ‘what is this government doing?’ The government has been bogged with internal squabbles and power fights. The state was reeling under severe floods, the new government could not reach out to the people of the state. The hundred-day performance of the BJP government is zero and they're more interested in poaching MLAs of other parties and settling scores with their rivals.
The new govt has promised to form MPC (Metropolitan Planning Committee ) after the bye-polls. The previous Congress govt did not do much to make the MPC truly functional. What do you say about that?
The MPC was there, I have attended it myself as an MLC. But I want to ask the BJP what is their solution to fix the city? The BBMP of today was created by the BJP. My question to them is how are they solving the city's problems? We had formed the BS Patil committee to decentralise the BBMP into smaller bodies but the BJP wants to oppose it. This structure is nonperforming, it has to be decentralised and we have to take the power to the ward level. We have done all the basic work to re-structure but the political opposition from the BJP has stalled it. They are diverting funds from Congress MLA constituencies.
How serious are these allegations of fund being divulged from Congress-ruled constituencies?
It is very true. When we were the ruling party, we never discriminated between a Congress-held constituency and a BJP-held one. However, the government of the day has been redeploying funds based on Congress-BJP. Due to this confusion, development work is being hampered and this is not in the interest of the city
The Congress has been saying that it will dislodge the BJP government by winning most of the bye-poll seats? How confident are you in doing so?
I am not a big enough person to dislodge a government, my concentration is on serving the people of Shivajinagar. But I am sure we are going to win a lot of seats in the bye-polls as people are fed up with the government. This government has come to power by luring MLAs with their black money.