Ramanagara district by another name: The ruckus over Siddaramaiah's move

The Karnataka government has greenlighted the change of Ramanagara district's name to 'Bengaluru South'. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Friday (July 26).

"We have decided to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South....It is based on the demand of the people there. The Revenue Department will start the process," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil said.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, he said: "Only the name of the district will change, remaining all will remain the same."

Recent decision

The proposal to rename neighbouring Ramanagara district, consisting of Ramanagara, Magadi, Kanakapura, Channapatna and Harohalli taluks, as ‘Bengaluru South’ gained steam recently, with a delegation led by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar meeting the Chief Minister and submitting a memorandum to raise the pitch. 

The Opposition has been up in arms against the name change plan. The BJP and JDS have slammed the Congress government in the state, accusing it of indulging in "appeasement politics".

R Ashoka, BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, was quoted as saying: “It appears as if they (Congress) hate the name “Rama’’ in Ramanagara, which has prompted them to take up this proposal.”

Real estate link?

Ashoka further said the state government was probably looking at the move in terms of real estate value, by linking the district to Bengaluru.

“They have already cheated people of Bengaluru in the name of ‘Brand Bengaluru’, and now with the renaming of Ramanagara, they are fooling people of that district too,’’ he said.

“The Congress is trying to take revenge against both the parties for Congress’ loss in the recent Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

After "grabbing land through MUDA (Mysore Urban Development Authority)", they were "making an attempt to grab lands of Ramanagara district", he was quoted as saying.

'All politics'

CN Ashwath Narayan, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, was quoted as saying the Congress has neglected Ramanagara.

“They have used the district only for political representation and done nothing. They want to change the name of the district simply for appeasement politics,” he said.

JDS Youth president Nikhil Kumaraswamy also alleged appeasement politics. “This place is significant in its own way. Why are they changing its name? There is some hidden agenda to woo certain sections of the people,’’ he claimed.

Name reversal

 Nikhil's father and Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who served as the Chief Minister of the JD(S)-BJP coalition government when Ramanagara district was established in August 2007, was particularly vocal about this issue.

Kumaraswamy, like Ashoka, called it a 'real estate ploy' by the Congress government. He said the name change would be reversed if his party formed the government in the state again.

To this, Siddaramaiah retorted: "The BJP won't come to power again to change or remove the name. People have chosen us; they can't claim they will come to power. Did HD Kumaraswamy or the BJP get the people's blessings?"

'Future development'

On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had said that district leaders proposed renaming Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South for future development.

He pointed out that the area originally belonged to Bengaluru district, later divided into Bangalore City, Bangalore Rural, and Ramanagara for administrative purposes.