Realtor lobby aspires for place in Vidhan Sodha

Roshni Menon, CNBC-TV18

Everyone dreams of owning a piece of land in IT city, but that land might just be harder to come by if the realtor's lobby finds place at Vidhana Sodha.

It's a business that made landowners in Bangalore millionaires overnight. As the city turned from pensioner's paradise to IT hub, land became the most sought after commodity here. But over the last few years, this land has become concentrated in the hands of a few and the worrying factor is that the landlords are now looking to become policymakers.

Kupendra Reddy, a contestant from Bommanahalli, and one of the richest candidates in these elections, holds around 240 acres of land in Bangalore's prestigious HSR layout, where prices have crossed Rs 15 crore an acre. "I come from infrastructure brand. I know infrastructure very well, how to develop cities, roads, how to put satellite townships, provide schools, hospitals, etc.," he defends.

And the one thing that rings common to all these public facilities is land! Every political party in Karnataka has fielded a contestant from the real estate lobby.

Politicians like former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Jaffer Shereiff, DK Shivakumar, Katta Subramanya Naidu, R Ashok and Ramlinga Reddy, all hold sizeable chunks of land in and around Bangalore. New names like Nandish Reddy, Prasad Reddy have also crept into this time's list. As land in Bangalore and the surrounding areas gets dearer, real estate barons are becoming desperate to get a foothold in the policymaking process.

Sources say that close to Rs 2,000 crore of campaigning funds came in from this lobby. With all political parties promising to improve the investment climate in the state, it's the landlord who could hold the key to Karnataka's fortunes.