Bangalore south: Congress pitches Sowmya against BJP’s Surya

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, March 20

Sowmya Reddy, who lost by 16 votes from Jayanagar Assembly constituency in Karnataka, will be the Congress’ candidate from the Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency against BJP’s Tejasvi Surya who currently holds the seat.

The Congress has never won a parliamentary seat in Bangalore South for the past 38 years.

In the 2023 Karnataka Assembly poll, Sowmya lost by the narrowest margin from Jayanagar Assembly seat. She has moved Karnataka High Court questioning the election of her rival BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy on the grounds of alleged irregularities in the process of counting of votes.

Sowmya was offered the seat after her father Ramalinga Reddy who is the Transport Minister in Karnataka refused to contest. In 2019 as well, Reddy refused to contest from Bangalore South.

Ramalinga Reddy said that Congress leaders have unanimously agreed upon her name and the same was conveyed to the AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar.

“Women will vote for the Congress, given our schemes in the state. The BJP has ridiculed these schemes. Moreover, Sowmya’s petition challenging the Jayanagar Assembly constituency election result is pending in court,” Ramalinga said.

A senior Congress leader said, “Only after Tejasvi Surya put pressure on the returning officers demanding a recount was Ramamurthy declared a winner. The Election Commission of India had initially declared Sowmya the winner.”

Surya claimed that the BJP has conducted several works in the constituency since 2019.