A divided house in Kolar, Congress faces an uphill battle to retake a lost fortress

Patchy implementation of the welfare schemes, the recent murder of a young college girl in Hubballi, the Narendra Modi factor, and a silent mutiny by a top leader have landed the Congress on a sticky wicket in the reserved constituency of Kolar in south Karnataka that was once its bastion.

“They are struggling to fulfil the guarantee of providing Rs 2,000 per month to poor women. How will they provide Rs 8,500 per month?” says a farmer grazing his cattle in the afternoon sun in rural Kolar.

Two days earlier at an election rally in Malur, around 25 km from the Kolar town, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party would reduce the divide between the rich and the poor — through annual dole of Rs 1 lakh for poor women and a first job guarantee for graduates — if the Congress were voted to power at the Centre.

In the village of Gotlur in the Bangarapet region, Venkatamma, a middle-aged woman lives with her family whose primary occupation is farming. Venkatamma who runs a small store in the village corner was at the Congress rally but says she has not heard of the new guarantees.

A year ago, ahead of the Assembly elections, Venkatamma and her family complained about life getting harder during the BJP’s tenure in the state. The Vokkaliga family with over an acre of land was considering voting out the BJP last year. Now she says life has “become even harder for us” because everything is costlier, from fertilisers to fodder. “The guarantees of the government are helping us to a small extent,” she says, adding that her family is considering voting for the “future of the nation (BJP and Modi)”.

“The Congress party supports Muslims who kill our girls,” she alleges, referring to an incident in Hubbali, some 500 km away, where a young