BENGALURU: It’s official: Mangala Angadi, wife of former Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi, was chosen as the BJP’s official candidate from Belagavi, a constituency nurtured by Suresh C Angadi as MP, undefeated since 2004.
While the sleaze CD allegedly involving Ramesh Jarkiholi is threatening to adversely affect the BJP’s chances in Belagavi, where Ramesh’s brother Satish Jarkiholi is the Congress candidate, the party appears to have made a safe choice with Mangala Angadi, said a party insider.
While former Union minister Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini was ignored for the Bangalore South seat, Mangala has been preferred because of winnability and the sympathy factor, a source said.In Maski, the party chose Prathapgouda Patil, a turncoat who quit the Congress and joined the BJP, bringing down the coalition government. He will again face off with Basanagouda Turvihal, now in the Congress, and who had contested on a BJP ticket in 2018. Patil had won narrowly over Turvihal.
In Basavakalyan, BJP has chosen Sharanu Salagar, who was among the 20-plus contenders for the seat. Salagar has worked extensively in this seat and the party has taken winnability into consideration. He is pitted against deceased Congress MLA Narayan Rao’s wife Mala, and the BJP is aware that the Congress will try to ride the sympathy wave.
Curiously, Karnataka’s former chief secretary K Ratna Prabha, originally from Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, was chosen to contest the Tirupati bypoll. Ratna Prabha joined the BJP in 2019, ignoring BSP’s invitation. Ratna Prabha’s father Katti Chandraiah, husband Vidyasagar and brother Pradeep Chandra are all bureaucrats from Andhra Pradesh. She was earlier considered to take on Mallikarjun Kharge in Kalaburagi, but the party fielded Dr Umesh Jadhav, who switched from the Congress.