BENGALURU : Loud Chants of ‘The Boss... The Boss...’ rented the air as Kannada film actor Darshan hit the lanes and bylanes of Rajarajeshwarinagar in support of BJP bypoll candidate Munirathna. Frenzied fans and bystanders gathered outside their homes in large numbers as Friday was a holiday because of Eid.
Darshan, who played hero in 2011 starer ‘Boss’ and has many super hits to his credit, smiled and waved from the top of an open van, while women did mangalarathi to him.
As Darshan hit the streets, Congress leaders, who seemed outmanoeuvred, pointed out that the actor, who is a Balija Kapu, is supporting Munirathna, a Naidu, and made it into a Vokkaliga vs Naidu fight. They hoped that it would stick, considering that Congress state unit president DK Shivakumar is a Vokkaliga. They said that film producer Rockline Venkatesh, corporator Venkatesh, Darshan and Munirathna are all originally from Andhra Pradesh and are “outsiders”.
The BJP had its own counter, portraying Shivakumar as an outsider as he is from the Kanakapura constituency and not RR Nagar. Amid all the show and dazzle from both the BJP and Congress, JDS candidate V Krishnamurthy has not had any visibility at all. But the party has done reasonably well in previous elections in this constituency, with party candidate G H Ramachandra bagging over 50,000 votes in 2013 and 60,000 votes in 2018.