In drought-hit Karnataka region, fears of change in Constitution find fertile ground

AT A TIME when the ruling Congress has made the “delay” in release of drought relief funds by the Centre to Karnataka a poll issue, the agrarian crisis is set to be the determining factor in Raichur, one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in north Karnataka going to polls on May 7. Another is the fear that in its next term, a BJP government at the Centre would “change the Constitution”.

An ST- reserved seat, Raichur is identified by the NITI Aayog as an “aspirational district”, on account of “the lowest composite indicators in terms of health and nutrition, education, agriculture, water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure”.

At B Hanumapura village, around 40 km from Raichur city, entire families have moved to capital city Bengaluru for work at construction sites since drought conditions began in 2023. In the houses that are not locked, of the 700-odd in the village, there are mostly just the elderly and women.

Nagaraj H, 24, a Dalit, is among the few youths around. He says his entire family, including his father, brothers and their families, went to Bengaluru for work this year after the family ran up Rs 3 lakh in farm loans. Then one of his brothers had a fall at a work site, breaking his collarbone. He and his mother are now back home, nursing him.

In Bengaluru, seven members of the family stay in a single room, paying Rs 3,000 per month. “But living in the village means accumulation of more debts. We had no other option,” says Nagaraj.

The Railways has now announced a special train on Monday night to enable migrant workers to return to Raichur to vote in the May 7 polls.

A life-saver for families like Nagaraj’s is the Rs 2,000 a month amount given to one woman per poor household in Karnataka