BENGALURU: The Congress, which is ready to move heaven and earth to win Bangalore North constituency, is holding an important meeting at the KPCC office on Saturday. It will be chaired by Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and UDD Minister Byrati Suresh, both of whom have been given the responsibility of winning this seat for the Congress.
Candidates in the fray are former MP Prof Rajeev Gowda and Govindarajnagar MLA Priya Krishna, with the latter most likely to be the final candidate. A team of Congress leaders met Priya Krishna in the morning and convinced him to contest, and also that they would work wholeheartedly for him.
The party has the advantage of sitting MLAs in three constituencies -- Krishna Byre Gowda in Byatarayanapura, AC Srinivas in Pulikeshi Nagar and Byrathi Suresh in Hebbal, besides the support of Yeshwantpur BJP MLA ST Somashekar, who left the Congress to join the BJP in 2019, and voted against the BJP in the RS election in 2023. If Somashekar works covertly or overtly for the Congress, it could give them a huge boost.
The BJP has two turncoats -- KR Puram MLA Byrati Basavaraj, a former Congressman, Mahalakshmi MLA K Gopalaiah who left the JDS to join the BJP, besides Malleswaram MLA CN Ashwath Narayan and Dasarahalli MLA S Muniraju.
“The BJP has the disadvantage of getting leaders from outside the district -- they brought in DB Chandre Gowda from Chikkamagaluru and former CM Sadananda Gowda from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru. He represented the constituency here. They are now fielding Shobha Karandlaje from Bengaluru North, although she hails from Dakshina Kannada.
Again, an outsider may not work to their disadvantage because the BJP could capitalise on it, and say the constituency is turning into a bastion of outsiders.’’ Asked about finalising candidates in all 28 constituencies, KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed said, “We will be holding a CEC meeting and will announce all candidates after the meeting on March 18.’’