Bhanu Prasad (standing) and Bharranii examine jeans at their office (top), women stitching jeans at Mohammed Bashir’s workshop

Bellary (Karnataka), May 13: Brothers Bhanu Prasad and Bharranii carefully examine the jeans laid out in front of them, before turning to customers seated on the other side of the table and engaging them in polite conversation.

“I think I know your brother. Doesn’t he play badminton at the gymkhana,” Prasad asks a woman customer, who nods, smiling.

Prasad’s next customer — an IAS officer — has travelled close to a hundred kilometres to buy his jeans from the town that briefly grabbed national headlines when Sonia Gandhi contested the 1999 Lok Sabha polls from here.

But though Bellary goes to Assembly polls on May 16, the bureaucrat’s visit to the town has nothing to do with politics.

Bellary city is locally known as the “jeans junction” of south India, and to this famed industry the elections matter little.

“The city is known for its jeans because of the quality of products and the craftsmanship of workers here,” Prasad says, omitting the public relations skills that he certainly possesses.

“But the government and its policies really don’t affect us. We are thoroughly self-sufficient and don’t require government help,” Prasad says.

The Bellary jeans industry has an annual turnover varying from Rs 200 crore in a “bad year” to Rs 500 crore, manufacturers say.

Point Blank, the name of Prasad’s brand, is popular in the region, but the brothers also sell unbranded jeans stitched at their workshops to stores and malls in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Orissa, says Bharranii.

“There, Bellary’s jeans sell under different brand names, including some of the most famous ones,” he says.

“How does it matter whether the BJP, the Congress, or anyone else wins here. The industry just needs to be left alone.”

That sentiment is echoed by Mohammed Bashir, the “master trainer” in charge of the many jeans workshops in Bellary.

“I have been working in the industry for 14 years and have seen it grow from strength to strength. We do not need anything from the government,” he says, as a battery of girls stitches jeans under his watchful eyes. “If you ask my personal opinion though, the BJP is likely to win from this seat,” he adds.

Bashir’s views on the likely winner are shared by most on the streets of Bellary city.

At a school where voter identity cards are being distributed, hundreds of residents have queued up for their ticket to the polling booth. Most say the BJP appears stronger in this seat.

Congress candidate Anil Lad sounds tired when he picks up his phone, says he thinks he should win, and requests he be allowed to take some rest. Lad represented another seat from Bellary district in the outgoing Assembly — from the BJP.

His one-time party mate and now rival candidate, Somshekhar Reddy, says he “will win”, thanks to the “hard work of the BJP and the betrayal by Sonia”.

“Sonia Gandhi won from here in 1999, then promptly left the constituency in favour of Amethi and has never bothered about this area again. People here feel she cheated them,” he claims, rattling off a slew of infrastructure projects the outgoing BJP MLA from the seat, S. Sriramelu, undertook. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, whom Sonia defeated in 1999, has been visiting the city every year since she lost, Reddy claims.

“Every year, Sushmaji comes here and organises the marriage of hundreds of poor girls,” he says.

Less than six months ago, the BJP swept the municipal polls in Bellary city, leaving the Congress without a single seat in the local body. Little in the mood of people here suggests a dramatic turnaround on May 16.