The election for the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat took an interesting turn when senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa announced his decision to contest against the official BJP candidate, miffed over his son K.E. Kanthesh being denied the ticket to contest from Haveri. This has left workers in both BJP and Congress camps wondering whose vote bank Mr. Eshwarappa would end up breaking.
BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa and his son B.Y. Raghavendra have won the constituency since 2009. Earlier, this was the strong base of the former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa. This time Mr. Raghavendra is facing Geetha Shivarajkumar, Bangarappa’s daughter, of the Congress, besides Mr. Eshwarappa, who is likely to be the rebel candidate. In recent years, the BJP has improved its base across the constituency. This was evident in the huge margins by which Mr. Yediyurappa and his son won the seat in the 2014 and 2019 elections, respectively.
Mr. Eshwarappa, who belongs to the Kuruba caste, has represented Shivamogga constituency five times. He had announced his decision to retire from electoral politics nudged by central leaders last time but has announced his decision to contest to get back over “betrayal” of a promise made to give a ticket to his son. He has squarely blamed Mr. Yediyurappa for the turn of events.
