The social media has been quite unforgiving of Tejasvi Surya, the Bengaluru-South candidate of the BJP, for his tweets on Women Reservation Bill and the gag order he was able to get from a sessions court against 49 media houses forreporting “defamatory” content about him.

But the 28-year-old Surya dismisses them as beingtwisted out of context. “The Congress just doesn’t have any issues to use against me. So, they make them up,” he said.

The Karnataka High Court later overturned the sessions court ruling.

Also read:A close look at Bengaluru city’s four constituencies

Surya was the mystery candidate who was propped up at the ninth hour by the BJP to fight elections from the Bengaluru-South constituency. Had the BJP high command had gone with the popular opinion, the widow of late HN Ananth Kumar, Tejaswini, would have been the candidate.

Surya brushes aside rumours of discontent among BJP workers because of Tejaswini not being given a seat. “I am not aware of any such dissident activities. Everyone has been very supportive,” said the lawyer-turned-politician. But according to insiders, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar lent her support for the campaign only during the last few days.

While Surya said it is a big responsibility on him, he is confident of fulfilling it and believes that his age will not come in the way of voters’ support.

“When CEOs as young as I am can run billion-dollar companies, I can surely represent my constituency in Parliament,” he said with assurance.

What analysts say

“The BJP put up a light-weight candidate as the constituency is considered the safest in Karnataka, said political analysts.

It is also true that the BJPwants to groom Surya who is considered a hardliner for bigger roles, similar to the way it nurtured the Late Ananth Kumar, who too rose quickly through the ranks and was first elected as the Lok Sabha member in his thirties.

Surya’s career has so far been similar to Late Ananth Kumar. An active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the youth-wing of the RSS, Surya rose to become its State secretary and after along with being a part of the law firm of Ashok Haranahalli, the former additional advocate general of Karnataka. He became the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 2016.

“These elections are being held to elect the Prime Minister of the country. The main issue before each of the voters is whether they want Narendra Modi to be the Prime Minister and they are clear that they want him to continue,” he said.

When asked whether this is the only agenda that he wants to put before the electorate, Surya said Bengaluru should have a think-tank which can suggest policies to help improve its infrastructure.

He does not believe that demonetisation has been a stumbling block while campaigning in his constituency.

“There were job losses but new ones were created. So, it was a mere phase and in a modern economy such things are bound to happen,” he said

Surya is also the nephew of Ravi Subramanya, the BJP MLA from Basavangudi, which is a part of the Bengaluru-South constituency. Surya’s main opposition candidate is the 64-year-old Congress leader BK Hariprasad, whose nomination took party workers by surprise.

 

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