Congress To Levearge On Good Work Of Former IAS Officer G. Kumar Naik In Raichur
Congress gave a ticket to a former bureaucrat G Kumar Naik to run for the elections in Raichur for the 18th Lok Sabha. The 1990 Karnataka cadre IAS officer has been the Deputy Commissioner of Raichur from 1999 to 2002 which helped him garner wider public support due to his good work in the district. He received recognition for the water management system, securing a green tag for the city, and developmental project implementation in Raichur. Considering his worth, the Indian National Congress seemed to bank on Naik’s work in the district.
With a passion for reading Kannada literature, the former IAS officer has a penchant for Bollywood flicks too and loved to watch Govinda, and Hritik Roshan movies, and late actress Sridevi being his all-time favorite among female actors along with Katrina Kaif and Tabbu. As Kumar Naik was born and brought up in Karnataka and served in the state cadre as well he knows the constituency very well which will help him in understanding the ground-level situation more easily, Congress expects.
The Raichur Lok Sabha constituency includes Raichur Urban, Raichur Rural, Manvi, Lingsugur, Deodurg, Yadgir, Shahpur, and Shorapur Assembly constituencies with a total number of nearly 19.93 lakh voters. This year the date of voting for the Raichur Lok Sabha constituency election is May 7, 2024 (phase 3).
In Raichur 4 of the total 8 assembly regions are occupied by the INC candidates, 2 by BJP, and 1 by JDS. In the last Lok sabha elections in 2019, Raja Amareshwara Naik from BJP won the elections with 53.21 percent votes defeating INC candidate B.V. Nayak who secured 42.75 percent votes.
Raichur is an ST category parliament seat with a literacy rate well below the national average at 48.04 percent. The total SC, ST, and Muslim population in the constituency is 21.74 percent, 16.57 percent, and 13.78 percent respectively. Economically, the constituency depends on agriculture. It has a thermal power station at Shaktinagar which provides electricity to a large portion of Karnataka. The district receives a sufficient amount of water for irrigation due to Tungabhadra Dam and Narayanpura Dam.
BJP has fielded Raja Amareshwara Naik again from the constituency.
