B'luru North: Karandlaje under pressure to win in party stronghold

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: After she was shifted to Bangalore North segment for the coming Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje is determined to prove a point or two and wants to ensure that BJP continues its winning streak here.

Bangalore North has remained a BJP stronghold since 2004 and the 57-yearold is banking on the "Modi factor".

She is facing Congress candidate and former Rajya Sabha member M V Rajeev Gowda, who is putting up a spirited fight.

Both belong to the Vokkaliga community. Karandlaje is a two-time MP from Udupi-Chikmagalur but was moved out after she faced a "Go back Shobha" campaign there from a section of her party.

Karandlaje has been telling people how India is on the development path in the past 10 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

"This is an election to save India's culture and 'Sanatana' traditions," the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, who hails from coastal Karnataka, said.

According to BJP sources, she has a strong backing of former Chief Minister and BJP stalwart B S Yediyurappa. Since 2004, BJP is holding this seat, which was a Congress fortress from 1952 to 2004 barring the 1996- 1998 period when the then Janata Dal's C Narayanaswamy was the MP.

Former Railway Minister late C K Jaffer Sharief was the longest serving MP of this constituency who represented it seven times, including for five terms uninterruptedly from 1977 to 1996.

Since 2004, BJP had three MPs from here-- former Karnataka Director General of Police H T Sangliana, late D B Chandre Gowda and former Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who were all considered "outsiders".

Of the eight Assembly segments under Bangalore North, five are represented by the BJP and the rest by the Congress. Karandlaje is known for indulging in "communally divisive" speech and polarisation which people don't want here, alleges Rajeev Gowda.