Doctors and a former bureaucrat to children of Ministers, many first-time contestants will represent the State in the Lok Sabha this time. Notably, most of them come from political backgrounds.
Among the big upsets was the Bengaluru Rural seat. Representing the BJP, C.N. Manjunath, former director of the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, defeated the incumbent D.K. Suresh of the Congress. This was also a battle of political prestige as Dr. Manjunath is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, while Mr. Suresh is the brother of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
Another headline-making victory was of Congress’s 31-year-old Shreyas M. Patel, who defeated the incumbent embattled MP Prajwal Revanna in Hassan. The grandson of former Minister late G. Puttaswamy Gowda, he had lost to JD(S)‘s H.D. Revanna in Holenarsipur constituency in the Assembly election last year by a thin margin.
The youngest contestant was Sagar Khandre, 26, who, on a Congress ticket, defeated Union Minister of State for Fertilizers and Chemicals Bhagwant Khuba in Bidar. Mr. Sagar is the son of Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre and the fourth member of the Khandre family to enter politics.
Another successful debut from a political family was that of Congress candidate Priyanka Jarakiholi, 27, who won from the Chikkodi constituency against Annasaheb Jolle of the BJP. Ms. Priyanka is the daughter of Karnataka Public Works Minister and KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi.
Prabha Mallikarjun
Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of S.S. Mallikarjun, Minister for Mines and Geology in the Siddaramaiah government, on her debut on a Congress ticket, defeated another influential political family entrant — BJP’s Gayatri Siddeshwar, wife of MP G.M. Siddeshwara in Davangere constituency.
Among the other successful debuts — all from the Congress stable — were former bureaucrat G. Kumar Naik from the Congress, who clinched the Raichur seat by defeating the BJP’s Raja Amareshwar Naik, Sunil Bose, the son of Minister for Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa, who won the Chamarajanagar constituency by defeating S. Balaraj of the BJP, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani, who defeated Umesh Jadhav of the BJP in Kalaburagi.
Published - June 04, 2024 11:46 pm IST
