BENGALURU: Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency is set to witness a clash of the clans, with the BJP pitching JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr C N Manjunath against sitting Congress MP D K Suresh, younger brother of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
It will be interesting to see if Dr Manjunath can ride the goodwill of helping needy people as former director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research. Besides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma can make the contest a cliffhanger. His supporters have set the narrative that if the doctor wins, he may become health minister in the Modi cabinet.
Suresh has started playing the ‘son of the soil’ card, and given a call to JDS workers to join hands with him, indirectly terming Manjunath an outsider.
BJP has improved its vote base in this constituency. In 2019, Ashwath Narayan Gowda had polled 6,71,388 votes against Suresh, who got 8,78,258 votes as the Congress-JDS alliance candidate.
Though Suresh’s supporters claim it is going to be a sure shot win for him, a slimmer winning margin cannot be ruled out. They also agree that Manjunath cannot be written off, as rivals have no weapons to criticise him, except that he hails from Gowda’s family.
“Except Kanakapura, BJP will lead in the remaining seven assembly constituencies,” remarked former minister C P Yogeshwara. The DKS brothers’ rivals, including Rajarajeshwari Nagar BJP MLA Muniratna, have ganged up under the leadership of former CM H D Kumaraswamy.
In a war of words on X, Suresh on Thursday taunted that Gowda’s ‘clever’ son-in-law chose BJP as the JDS is not good enough for him. The JDS retorted that Manjunath may be clever but not like the DKS brothers who were ‘problematic’ and ‘selfish’ in accumulating assets.
Suresh asserted that for him or Shivakumar, taking on the Gowda clan is nothing new. In the 2013 LS bypolls, he had defeated Gowda’s daughter-in-law Anitha Kumaraswamy, and won the 2014 and 2019 LS polls, despite the Modi wave. Shivakumar had defeated Gowda from Kanakapura assembly constituency in 1989.
In the 2002 bypolls for erstwhile Kanakapura LS seat, Gowda had defeated Shivakumar and risen from the ashes after losing Hassan to G Puttaswamy Gowda in 1999.
The BJP is expected to get JDS votes converted for Manjunath through Gowda and Kumaraswamy’s efforts.
To tackle the BJP-JDS alliance in a constituency of urban, rural and semi-urban zones, Suresh has already organised party workers at the Gram Panchayat level by dropping ‘ammunition’ strategically. “Gala parties, including non-vegetarian food (baadoota) with cocktails were also held,” he added.