V Srinivasa Prasad, to contest from the Chamarajanagar constituency

MYSORE: V Srinivasa Prasad, the former Union minister and BJP leader, is all set for his come back to the electoral politics and will possibly be taking on the political disciple, Dhruvanarayana, of the Congress from the Chamarajanagar constituency, through which he had been represented five times before in the Lok Sabha.

During an interview Prasad had said that, he wanted to retire from electoral politics, but he had accepted the call of the party by considering national interests.

When asked, What prompted him to return to electoral politics?

Srinivasa Prasad had said that, "I was under pressure from party leaders and the people to contest from Chamarajanagar. Initially, I was not ready, but they all want me to contest. I wanted to retire from electoral politics after completing my assembly tenure in 2018, but I was humiliated by former chief minister Siddaramaiah and it forced me to revoke my earlier decision. That is the reason why I resigned my assembly membership and contested the bypoll to Nanjangud in 2017. Now, I want to ensure maximum seats for the BJP from Karnataka. I'm contesting Lok Sabha elections after a gap of 20 years."

As Prasad was asked if he was confident of wresting the seat from the Congress?

Prasad, replied by saying that he is confident of victory. "Definitely. Look at the assembly election results. The BJP has done very well in all the assembly segments of Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha seat. It won two seats by trouncing heavyweights like then district incharge minister Geetha Mahadeva Prasad in Gundlupet. A a lot has changed in the past 20 years and the party has a good base in the constituency. People have changed, their priorities have changed. I am confident of victory."

When questioned about the issue in Chamarajanagar, Srinivasa Prasad said that, "In Lok Sabha elections, local issues generally don't play a major role. National issues take priority. People also look at the party which can give them a stable and able leadership. In this election, people want to see Narendra Modi back as prime minister and the Chamarajanagar electorate is no exception. So, they will obviously prefer BJP. The Congress for the first time has forged an electoral understanding with a regional party in the state to fight the elections. It is a historic low for the Congress in the state. The alliance shows that the Congress is weak in Karnataka."

As the Chamarajanagar constituency is comprised of Dalit voters on a large scale, and a section of dalits consider BJP to be an anti-dalit party. However, there are also allegations that Srinivasa Prasad is being used by the BJP to fetch the dalit votes for the party candidates within the state, especially in the Old Mysore region.

But Prasad said in contrary to this that, "It is not true. Dalit voters have always stood by me for my commitment to their cause. So naturally, they will support the BJP in Mysuru, Hassan and other places where I expect party candidates to register wins."