At a time when the lockdown and subsequent limited Unlock 1 and 2 have almost ‘neutralised’ active politicians, former MLA Shakunthala T. Shetty got herself engaged in agriculture activities — to be precise in transplanting paddy shoots at her mother’s place.
Representing Puttur Assembly constituency in Dakshina Kannada district twice, 2004 and 2013, the 73-year-old Shetty had last indulged in paddy cultivation in 1995 before the paddy fields of her husband’s family were converted into arecanut plantations. “Yet I was active in agriculture activities, nurturing arecanut, coconut, coca and other crops in our fields,” she told The Hindu.
Shifting her residence to Kutthar near Mangaluru three years ago after disposing of properties at Puttur, Ms. Shetty was shuttling between Kutthar and Puttur in pursuit of her political career before the lockdown was imposed. “However I was confined to the four walls of the house and became inactive,” she said.
When she heard the fallow paddy fields of her mother’s family at Bolyaguthu near Kutthar was being prepared for paddy cultivation this kharif season, Ms. Shetty wasted no time and joined her cousins. A few relatives who had come from Mumbai and were held back due to lockdown too joined the cultivation work, she said.
While the paddy shoots had already come up, Ms. Shetty joined the transplantation work last week. From plucking the shoot to transplanting them in the slushy fields, the former MLA worked along with relatives and other labourers. “It was a big relief for me and all the lockdown boredom vanished,” she said.
Despite COVID-related restrictions, Ms. Shetty is attempting to be in touch with her electorate and party workers. “I was there at Puttur to arrange watching of KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar’s swearing-in recently,” she said.
Shaping her political career in the BJP under the tutelage of Urimajalu Ram Bhat, Ms. Shetty got elected to the Assembly on a BJP ticket in 2004. She however contested as an independent candidate in 2008 when the party denied her ticket from Puttur and lost. She joined the Congress in 2013 and was successful, but lost to BJP’s Sanjeev Matandoor in 2018.
