Tejasvi Surya: Debutant MP is millennial neta, Hindutva mascot
BENGALURU: It has been a dream run for the BJP central leadership’s newest blue-eyed boy Tejasvi Surya, right from the word go. At 28, the law graduate was handpicked, much to the surprise of his own party leaders, to be the candidate from a bastion like Bangalore South.
Ever since his name was announced for the coveted seat, there has been no stopping young Tejasvi. A millennial, Tejasvi has carefully crafted his ‘youth-friendly’ image while playing his role as BJP’s poster boy of Hindutva, perfectly in sync. He speaks the language of the young, is tech-savvy, has an overpowering social media presence and formidable oratory skills. Tejasvi also wears his admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on one sleeve and the proud ‘Hindu tag’ on the other. The BJP choosing Tejasvi to make a debut speech in Parliament, in response to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, was just the latest instance of how his golden run has been uninterrupted.
Born in Chikkamagaluru but raised in Bengaluru, Tejasvi has proudly flaunted his association with the RSS - much of the credit for his candidature goes to RSS leaders and not party colleagues. It was not without reason that Tejaswini Ananth Kumar was overlooked for Bangalore South constituency - a seat held by the BJP since 1991.
Tejasvi’s association with the BJP goes back to his days in the ABVP and the Yuva Morcha. Despite his uncle, Ravi Subramanya, being a senior leader of the BJP and an MLA, Tejasvi has vehemently denied that he is a political dynast. His debut speech was all about the Prime Minister and Hindu pride, driving the BJP’s agenda right home. For the BJP, Tejasvi is the face of the ‘new, young, informed, proud Hindu’ and the debutant MP played his part to the hilt.
While his candidature was marred by controversies involving allegations of harassment, BJP president and now Home Minister Amit Shah started his Karnataka campaign with a roadshow for Tejasvi, crushing any dissent against his candidature and compelling the state leadership to back his candidature. His campaign was youth-centric, interactive as well as conventional and more importantly, impactful. So much so, that Tejasvi did not disappoint the BJP and won with a staggering margin of more than 3 lakh votes, much higher than late Ananth Kumar’s margin in 2014.
“I will strive to articulate a grand, audacious and dynamic dream for Bengaluru to catapult it to be a truly successful global metropolis,” Tejasvi had told The New Indian Express in an interview during the election campaign. For Tejasvi, the political journey began with a bang but now is the time for work.
Time and again, the young MP has reiterated the need for a think-tank, a vision group for Bengaluru. His emphasis has been, much like all other MPs from Bengaluru, on the suburban rail, and the issues he chose to speak on are youth-centric - much like the IBPS issue that he raised in Parliament on Wednesday. And to think, the trigger for his rise to power began with a chat with Amit Shah in a gym in Bengaluru last year.
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