Realtors set to turn heavy hitters on poll pitch

While Bangalore's real estate market continues to be in the pause-mode, realtors are bracing themselves to race on a different track: That of politics!

With Karnataka heading for polls, the appetite for power appears to be getting stronger among the real-estate players in the city.

A telling indicator of the phenomenon is the number of realtors who are making a beeline to Congress, BJP and JD(S) offices seeking tickets to contest elections "" likely to be held in the second or third week of May.

There are 28 assembly segments in Bangalore, but the number of ticket-seekers from each of the three major parties is more than 300. Of this, a majority of the aspirants are from the real estate sector. The turnout has, in fact, baffled the head-honchos of the political parties.

A senior JD(S) leader and a close confidante of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda told Business Standard: "We thought we will have a tough time finding candidates in Bangalore, but were surprised when we received around 350 applications. A preliminary study of the applications revealed that nearly 70 per cent of ticket seekers have real estate background."

The number is higher in the Congress and the BJP, which have commenced the exercise of distributing applications. The pressure from realtors on the Congress leaders for tickets has intensified following the return of former chief minister S M Krishna, who is known for his pro-urban stand.

"We will get to know how many realtors have approached us for tickets only by April 9 when we start scrutinising the applications. A rough assessment of the happenings is a pointer to the fact that the coming elections will be a battle between realtors," Congress leaders contended. Same is the case with the BJP.

The fight for power is not only expected to get fiercer once poll dates are announced, but will also change the dynamics of funding. Unlike the 2004 elections in which the mining lobby was the main fund sponsor for all the political parties, Election-2008 will see the realtors flexing their muscles.

But the question is why are the realtors wanting to get into the political ring? One probable answer being: Through power, it is easy to grow business in leaps and bounds.

The real-estate operators, who witnessed the way in which the mining lobby controlled the previous JD(S)-BJP government, also want to have a free run in Bangalore which is on a massive expansion mode.

Former MLAs like Katta Subramanya Naidu, H D Kumaraswamy, Zameer Ahmed Khan, Prasanna Kumar, C P Yogeshwar and M T B Nagaraj "" who have been associated with various real-estate transactions "" have become role-models for other realtors.

"If they can make it big using power, why should'nt we give it a try?", asked a realtor from K R Puram-Mahadevapura area. A victory at the hustings will not only help the realtor consolidate his property base, but will also aid him in undertaking mega projects around the city.

The entry of realtors, both big and small, is sure to jack up the poll expenditure. Though the Election Commission has fixed Rs 10 lakh as ceiling on poll expenditure to be incurred by a single candidate, the coming elections will witness real-estate money being thrust into the voters' hands. Insiders in the three political parties claim that each candidate in Bangalore is likely to spend anywhere between Rs 4 crore and Rs 12 crore.

In all, election spending by all the candidates in Bangalore will be in excess of Rs 500 crore, say sources.

While the expenditure will be low in the old constituencies, it will be higher in new segments like K R Puram, Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yelahanka as these are areas where large housing and industrial projects are coming up.

A trailer of what is expected was shown recently when officials of the income tax department conducted raids on the premises of over half-a-dozen real-estate developers in and around Bangalore and detected unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 223 crore in a single day. A majority of the developers who were raided were associated with some politician or the other.

For the political parties, realtors have turned out to be necessary evils at this juncture.

"As the stakes involved are high, we cannot afford to field a simple-politician. If a realtor has to be fought, another realtor with the same spending capability has to be fielded," a senior politician said.