Pushpalatha T B Chikkanna is the Mayor of Mysore City Corporation (MCC), Manjula Manjunath, President of Taluk Panchayat and Suneetha Veerappagowda President of Zilla Panchayat.
However, barring Suneetha Veerappagowda, the remaining two are fledglings who rose to hold the reins within a short period of time.
Pushpalatha was confined to household chores till her husband and former mayor T B Chikkanna had to scout for a constituency in the previous MCC polls, owing to delimitation of wards. The ward- 24 Chikkanna represented earlier was reserved for ladies. It was how Pushpalatha came to the scene, jumping into the poll arena and also winning her maiden polls as a Congress nominee. Moreover, she also became Mayor- the first citizen of Mysore, following her spouse to the seat of power.
In the case of Manjula Manjunath, it is totally different. She had been nursing dreams to test political waters since her childhood, and took a plunge when the opportunity came.
But she was not as lucky as Pushpalatha, as she (Manjula Manjunath) had to suffer defeat in her debut election. She lost the Gram Panchayat polls from Gudumadanahalli constituency, by a wafer thin margin of four votes.
“Undeterred, I contested the Taluk Panchayat elections from Chamundi Hill seat and won,” Manjula Manjunath told Deccan Herald. However, she has a volley of complaints against the officialdom who blatantly neglect the lady boss. She alleged that the officers just refuse to take her into confidence and always keep her in dark- be it about any developmental works or travel allowance or any other facilities. They care a damn to extend an invitation to any official works too.
Recently Manjula Manjunath was elected as the vice-president of Karnataka Taluk Panchayats Federation, but so far nothing has been done nothing to solve her woes, says Manjula.
She has a plan- to clear the encroachments of government land and gomalas and hand it over to the needy and poor for their development. A staunch supporter of Congress, she is a follower of Siddaramaiah.
Among the three, Suneetha Veerappagowda stands out for being senior, who knows the knack of taming the bull. She is in her fourth term as a ZP member representing Turaganur constituency in her home town T Narsipur district since her debut elections in 1987. When she began her career, she embraced Congress in 1986 and remained with the party till the assembly elections in 2004. Dejected she crossed over to BJP and also won the elections from Bannur constituency (later merged with T Narsipura after delimitation). Now, she is a member of Janata Dal (Secular).
Though, the cry for 33 pc reservation for women still remains far from reality, in Mysore district, it seems to have made a beginning- with all the three prominent elected bodies ruled by women, asserts Suneetha.