BENGALURU: Sharath Bache Gowda, the independent who defeated the richest MLA candidate MTB Nagaraj in spite of the formidable BJP election war machine backing the latter, is waiting for the dust to settle before he makes his next move.
Sharath, son of BJP’s Chickballapur MP BN Bache Gowda, was interestingly the BJP candidate in the last election about 19 months ago and was expelled from the BJP after he decided to contest as an independent candidate.
Sources close to him said, “He is considering joining one of the national parties and the Congress party is not ruled out.’’
Sharath told The New Indian Express that he had received feelers from both the Congress and BJP. He said he would consult his supporters and study voting patterns before he takes a decision. “We are in no hurry,’’ he said.
One source close to him even went on to say that the Grand Old Party would be the first choice. Asked if it would not hamper his constituency development, the source said, “Yes, we are aware of that.’’ The team feels that since BJP already has the requisite numbers and is stable, it may not need Sharath.
Sharath and his father Bache Gowda are the ones who built the BJP after the latter joined the saffron party in 2008 and took the party votes from less than 5,000 in their assembly constituency to over 98,000 votes in the last elections, not a mean achievement in about 10 years. Therefore, in spite of the best efforts by the BJP leaders B J Puttaswamy and Katta Subramanya Naidu and others, BJP could not defeat Sharath.
It was Sharath’s grandfather Channabyre Gowda who moved to Hoskote about 60 years ago and the family has considered it their stronghold because when Bache Gowda moved from the JDS to BJP, his formidable support base moved too and JDS had ceased to be a power there. This time, the JDS did not put up a candidate but just supported Sharath’s candidature.