BJP's Tejasvi Surya vs Congress' Sowmya Reddy: Bengaluru South's Prestige Battle

Bengaluru South, one of the largest constituencies in the Silicon Valley of India in terms of geographical size, is going to see a prestige battle between BJP's firebrand leader and current MP Tejasvi Surya and Congress' Sowmya Reddy in the Lok Sabha elections. The constituency has eight Assembly segments - Basavanagudi, BTM Layout, Bommanahalli, Chickpet, Govindraj Nagar, Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar, and Vijayanagar.

Known as a BJP pocket borough, Bengaluru South has been choosing the party since 1991. In fact, since 1977, the Congress has won here only once when former Chief Minister R Gundu Rao won the 1989 elections. However, this time around, Mr Surya is facing a spirited challenge from Ms Reddy, daughter of state transport minister Ramalinga Reddy.

Even as 41-year-old Reddy is expecting maximum support from BTM Layout, Jayanagar and Govindraj Nagar, - segments her father has a strong grip over - 33-year-old Surya is banking on Basavanagudi, Bommanahalli and Padmanabhanagar. Tejasvi Surya's uncle Ravi Subramanya is an MLA from Basavanagudi.

Ms Reddy is a former MLA from Jayanagar and lost the assembly elections last year by a mere 16 votes, a seat which the Congress won five times since 1989. Tejasvi Surya was chosen by the BJP to represent the constituency in 2019 after the party's six-time MP Ananth Kumar died due to cancer in 2018. Mr Surya defeated Congress veteran BK Hariprasad by a margin of more than 3.3 lakh votes, becoming the youngest BJP MP in the Lok Sabha.

Bengaluru South, popular for its swanky glass-fronted buildings, IT parks and upscale neighbourhoods, also has a good chunk of the slum population. Being a part of core Bengaluru, it has voters from a variety of communities, namely Schedule Caste, Vokkaligas, Brahmins and Muslims among others. Appealing to all these demographics would be a challenge for Mr Surya (a Brahmin) and Ms Reddy (an OBC).

The constituency with more than 23 lakh voters had, however, been represented mostly by members of the Brahmin community.

The Congress is banking heavily on its five guarantees to turn the tide against the BJP and Ms Reddy being the Transport Minister's daughter, the party is leaving no stone unturned to highlight how the 'Shakti' guarantee has allowed women to travel in non-luxury government buses across the state free of cost.

On their campaign trails, as Sowmya Reddy makes it a point to remind people about the Congress guarantees, Tejasvi Surya, like many other BJP candidates, underlines the strides made by the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past ten years.

The prestigious Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka is among the constituencies that will go to polls on April 26 in the second phase of the ongoing elections. Out of a total of 28 constituencies in Karnataka, 14 constituencies will vote in the second phase on Friday.