The Aryavarth Express
Agency (Bengaluru): The first list of seven Karnataka candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections was released by the Congress on Friday, and it includes DK Suresh (Bangalore Rural) and Geetha Shivarajkumar (Shimoga), the wife of Kannada actor Shivarajkumar.
Suresh, the current member from Bangalore Rural and the brother of Karnataka Congress head D K Shivakumar, has served as an MP three times. He was the lone candidate for Congress to win the State’s general elections in 2019. In the home area of BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa, the party’s selection of Geetha Shivarajkumar for the Shivamogga seat appears to have created the conditions for an intriguing contest.
Geetha, the daughter of the late S Bangarappa, the previous chief minister, ran on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Shivamogga (Shimoga), however she was defeated by Yediyurappa.
Currently, B Y Raghavedra, Yediyurappa’s son, is holding the position.
Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in April of last year, Geetha, the sister of the late Rajkumar, a Kannada thespian, and the daughter-in-law of Madhu Bangarappa, the minister for school education in Karnataka, joined the Congress.
Star Chandru, also known as Venkataramane Gowda, works as a contractor. Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent supported by the BJP, is the representative for the Mandya seat. In order to make room for Congress-JD(S) coalition candidate H D Deve Gowda, who unfortunately lost the polls, the Congress has denied renomination to Muddahanumegowda in the 2019 elections. Although Muddahanumegowda maintained a quiet profile, he officially joined the BJP in 2022. It was until last month that he joined Congress once more.
“Congress has named candidates in segments where there was no confusion over the nominee,” stated a member of Congress.
The combined BJP-JD(S) has not yet released their list of candidates.
In addition to winning 25 of the state’s 28 seats in the general elections in 2019, the BJP also supported an independent candidate named Sumalatha Ambareesh who also won. After fighting the election jointly and forming a coalition government at the time, the Congress and JD(S) failed to gain more than one seat apiece.
However, a lot has happened in the political landscape since then. The Congress, which won handily in the Assembly elections in May of last year, now seems primed and ready to make a big impression in the Lok Sabha elections.
For JD(S), which joined the BJP-led NDA in September of last year and is looking to establish its continued influence, especially in South Karnataka, it represents a kind of role reversal.
