By V.S. Karnic, IANS
Bangalore : Naseema Khan, a middle-aged Mysore housewife and mother of two, is overjoyed. So are 29-year-old advocate S. Rekha and 52-year-old J.N. Lakshmana, a freelance journalist, and not without reason. They are among the top 10 rank-holders from a novel eligibility test to “select” candidates for a civic body poll.
All three will be contesting the Mysore City Municipal Corporation polls for the first time, provided the political parties give them ticket.
The test on Sunday – the first such in the country – was a two-hour 100-mark paper to test the eligibility of candidates for the Mysore civic elections scheduled for Sep 28. It was conducted by a non-governmental organisation.
Naseema, whose daughter is studying in third year engineering in Mysore and son is in school, secured 9th rank scoring 74. Lakshmana topped the list with 85 marks, and Rekha came second with 82 marks.
“Only one of over 80 persons who wrote the test flunked, getting just 18 marks,” said K. Lakshmana, convener of the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM) that organised the test.
“We are very happy with the response and the performance as more than 50 percent got above 60 marks,” Lakshmana told IANS over phone from Mysore. Fifteen people got 50 percent and 10 scored 40 percent, he said.
Rekha and Naseema are the only two women among the top 10.
Rekha is seeking a Congress ticket and Naseema wants to contest as a candidate of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). Top ranker J.N. Lakshmana too hopes for a Congress ticket as he worked for the party a few years back.
The ACICM has promised to bear poll expenses of the top 10 candidates irrespective of the party they contest from.
The expenses will be in the form of posters, pamphlets and other publicity material, said Lakshmana, founder-principal of Karnataka Regional Institute of Engineering in Mysore.
“I just took one day to brush up my general knowledge and information on Mysore city,” Naseema, a B.Com graduate, told IANS on phone.
“The organisers had given only four days to prepare, but I was prepared as the questions related to Mysore,” said J.N. Lakshmana, a freelance journalist and a post-graduate in history.
Rekha, a commerce and law graduate, said she did not need much preparation to face the test as she knew the history as well as the present problems of her city.
All three were happy that such a test was conducted.
“It must be held to select candidates to contest the assembly and parliament polls as well,” said Naseema when asked whether she favoured such tests for all those seeking to be lawmakers at the state or national level.
Rekha and Lakshmana too said they were all for such tests as they set some benchmark.
Besides Rekha and Lakshmana, two others from the top 10 are seeking Congress tickets. While Naseema is the lone ranker hoping for a JD-S ticket, there is one aspirant for a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket and the remaining four want to enter the fray as independents.
Party leaders in Bangalore declined to answer questions on whether they would offer tickets to the rank-holders.