Raag Darbari in Dharwad

Karnataka’s Hubballi has been the BJP’s ‘gateway to the south’ and remains a hotbed for communal polarisation, as the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad head to Lok Sabha polls on May 7

- Rakhi Bose

AASIF Yeliwad, 42, was sipping tea at his usual corner a few feet from his home in the Anandnagar area of Hubballi, the second largest city in Karnataka, on a warm March evening in 2021 when he was arrested. A carpenter by profession, Yeliwad was later booked under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act for what was initially a case of rioting on April 16 that year. A police station was mobbed, pelted with stones and vehicles were torched that day. Yeliwad’s 18-year-old daughter, Noor Bano, claims her father is innocent. “He was not even there (at the Old Hubballi police station) at the time of the incident,” she states. Noor, who is pursuing a degree in medical science from a private institute, now weaves lanterns, earning Rs 50 a day after selling around four of them.

“I want to be a doctor, but after my father’s arrest, my siblings and I had to start working,” she states. Her two younger brothers, 15 and 17, quit school and now earn about Rs 400 a day each when they find work. One lays tiles, while the older one welds. 

After spending 10 months in Gulbarga Central Prison, Yeliwad suffered a paralytic attack affecting his right leg when his blood pressure spiked. He was granted bail on humanitarian grounds. Now, both his legs are paralysed, and he cannot stand without assistance. He spends his days parked on a rickety chair in a bare room in Anandnagar, the largest slum in the Hubballi-Dharwad region, which is set to vote on May 7 in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections.