Manjunath vs Manjunath in Rural Bengaluru LS seat

With multiple namesakes in the fray against him in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate Dr C N Manjunath said that these are old strategies which “show panic” in the rival camp.

Manjunath was speaking to reporters here after filing his nomination papers on Thursday.

“These are very old strategies. I will not call it anything else but strategy. This shows that some people are panicked,” Dr Manjunath, a renowned cardiologist, who was the director of government-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, said.

Dr Manjunath has many namesakes as competitors in this election. The nearest is Manjunatha C N who is a native of Channarayapatna in Hassan district, whose father’s name is Nanjundappa. Dr Manjunath’s father’s name is Nanjappa. The passport photographs of both these candidates show them in a black blazer and tie.

Other namesakes are Manjunath K from Papareddypalya in Bengaluru, N Manjunatha from Indiranagar slum in Rajajinagar in Bengaluru and Manjunath C from Shakti Garden in Mudalapalya in Bengaluru.

“People are wise, educated and thoughtful. They know that I am contesting on the lotus symbol from a national party BJP as an NDA candidate,” Dr Manjunath said. He ruled out chances of any confusion that the presence of many namesakes would create among voters.

Dr Manjunath is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and brother-in-law of former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. The BJP and JD(S) entered into an alliance in September last year.

While BJP is fighting the election in 25 constituencies, JD(S) is contesting in three – Kumaraswamy from Mandya, his nephew Prajwal Revanna from Hassan and M Mallesh Babu from Kolar. However, as part of their seat-sharing agreement between both parties, the BJP decided to field Manjunath as their candidate.

Regarding distribution of freebies as allurement to the voters in the Bengaluru Rural constituency, Manjunath said a complaint has been lodged with the Election Commission of India.

Questioned about the possibility of his victory, Dr Manjunath said that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP candidate Ashwath Narayana had contested against Congress’s D K Suresh with JD(S) as its ally.

“Though Narayana fought alone, he got 6.75 lakh votes. This time the BJP and the JD(S) are together. As per our calculations, we find ourselves way ahead of them (Congress),” Dr Manjunath said.