Tejaswini meets PM; what's cooking?

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Late BJP bigwig and former Union minister Anant Kumar’s widow Tejaswini on Sunday disclosed that she had met PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi, triggering speculation that she might be given a BJP ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha of 2024.

Tejaswini declared that she was “wedded to the party” and that the association would continue. When asked if she discussed politics with the PM, she replied in the positive, adding that she wanted to introduce her grandson to Modi.

She was also pressed by mediapersons to reveal if she was an aspirant for a BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha polls. However, she insisted she had plenty of avenues to serve the party already.

It is being whispered that the BJP leadership is considering denying a ticket to Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya.

He drew criticism for not visiting flood-hit areas in his constituency in September 2022 and for instead posting a picture eating a dosa on social media a few days earlier. The Bengaluru South seat was won by Anant Kumar six times.

Surya is the nephew of BJP MLA from Basavanagudi LA Subramanya who was one of the options the party had considered for the Bengaluru South ticket. They chose Tejasvi in the end. Anant Kumar died in November 2018, leaving behind a vacuum ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

His wife Tejaswini was supposed to step into that role before she was replaced as a candidate by eventual Hindutva poster boy Tejasvi Surya. He went on to win Bengaluru South by 3,31,192 votes, beating out Congressman BK Hariprasad.

BJP is looking to change things up for the parliamentary polls since the saffron party received a drubbing in the May 10 Assembly elections winning only 66 seats. It is being rumoured that many sitting BJP MPs from Karnataka may not get a ticket this time