The adage “The way to a man’s heart is through his tummy”, seems to have been taken a tad too seriously by political parties in Karnataka. Some of the leading parties in the state have taken the path of subsidised canteens that dish out affordable food to the public, to woo the voters.

While the saga took off with the Karnataka government’s Indira canteen that was set up by the party early this year, the Janata Dal (Secular) followed suit with Appaji canteen, named after former prime minister Deve Gowda. Both canteens price lunch at Rs 10. As for breakfast items, while Indira canteen offers various meals at Rs 5, the Appaji canteen offers masala vada, uddin vada and bajji for Rs 5 and idli chutney, khara bath and dosa for Rs 10. There are also reports of the Bharatiya Janata Party heading in this direction, as reported by the Times of India.

While Indira canteens are aplenty in Bengaluru, the game is quite different in Mandya, where people are spoilt for choice. Apart from eateries set up by the parties, there are those that ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ are opening in the name of the political leaders they ‘admire’.

A fan of actress-turned-politician Ramya set up the ‘Kumari Ramya Canteen’ in Mandya where the cinestar is touted to be contesting elections from, where an array of food items is available for Rs 10, as reported by the Deccan Herald. The items on the menu include masala dosa, set dosa and onion dosa, rice bath, poori, vada, uddina bonda, chapathi, chitranna and so on for breakfast, and chapathi, ragi balls, rice, sambar, rasam, curd rice and rava ganji for lunch.

While the sugar town is witnessing this canteen race, an admirer of H D Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru has named his mobile tender coconut unit ‘Kumaranna Mobile Elneeru Kendra’, as reported by Vijaya Karnataka.

It remains to be seen what else will be dished out by the vote-hungry parties in the time to come.

Kumari Ramya Canteen

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