In Congress’s Bangalore Rural bastion, BJP-JD(S) alliance faces the DK test

It is the only one of Karnataka’s 28 constituencies that the Congress won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This time, the Bangalore Rural constituency in the heart of the state’s agricultural hub is set to witness a high-profile battle between two of the most influential Vokkaliga families — the DK brothers and the Deve Gowda family — even as the BJP-JD(S) faces a tough test.

The constituency, spread over the districts of Ramanagara, Bangalore Urban, and Tumakuru in south Karnataka is predominantly rural (80%) but also houses IT parks and industrial townships in its urban pockets. It has an electorate comprising around 70% Vokkaligas and 15% Muslims.

Formerly known as Kanakapura, Bangalore Rural will see the Congress’s incumbent MP D K Suresh, the brother of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, lock horns with renowned cardiologist C N Manjunath who is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and is contesting on a BJP ticket.

In 2009, the first election after the 2008 delimitation, the Bangalore Rural seat was won by Deve Gowda’s son and former CM H D Kumaraswamy. Suresh won the constituency in a bypoll in 2013 and retained it in 2014 and 2019, with a vote share of over 44% and 54% respectively. The DK Brothers dealt another blow to the JD(S) first family in last year’s Assembly polls when Congress candidate Iqbal Hussain defeated Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil by more than 10,000 votes in the Ramanagara Assembly segment that had been with the “JD(S)’s first family” since 2004.

Apart from Ramanagara, the Congress holds Anekal, Kunigal, Magadi and Kanakapura Assembly segments while the BJP has MLAs in the Rajarajeshwarinagar and Bangalore South seats. The JD(S) holds the Channapatna Assembly constituency. The three