Geetha Shivarajkumar, wife of actor Shivarajkumar and daughter of the former Chief Minister late S. Bangarappa, who had contested the previous Lok Sabha election from Shivamogga segment as a candidate of Janata Dal (Secular) will campaign for the party in Shivamogga district from March 19 to 24 for the forthcoming Assembly election, Madhu Bangarappa, Sorab MLA, said.
It may be mentioned here that, in the Lok Sabha election Ms. Shivarajkumar had secured 2,40,533 votes and came third. Following the election, she had distanced herself from political activities citing personal reasons.
Madhu Bangarappa, who is also her younger brother and president of party’s State youth wing, told presspersons here on Tuesday that Ms. Shivarajkumar would seek votes for party candidates in Shivamogga, Shivamogga Rural, Bhadravati and Tirthahalli Assembly segments. He said that, in the fourth week of March, H.D. Kumaraswamy, president of party State unit will also visit the district to review the preparations for the election.
Replying to a query, he ruled out the possibility of reviewing the list of candidates announced by the party leadership for the the district. It may be mentioned here that a section of party workers had opposed the candidature of H.N. Niranjan from Shivamogga Assembly segment. Opposing Mr. Niranjan’s candidature, G. Narasimhamurthy, a member of Shivamogga City Corporation, had announced to contest the election as an Independent candidate. Mr. Narasimhamurthy was subsequently expelled from the party.
Commenting on these developments, Mr. Bangarappa said the selection of candidates was made after collecting the opinion of the party functionaries at the grassroot level. The list will not be revised, he said.
