Bengaluru: Tejaswini Ananth Kumar missed the bus as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah decided to field Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency.

Based on information from sources within the Karnataka BJP, here are four reasons why Tejasvi outclassed Tejaswini.

Reason 1

One of the primary reasons why Tejaswini was denied a ticket was that the party feared losing the election in the same way it lost in Jayanagar MLA by-election. The most popular BJP MLA BN Vijayakumar passed away unfortunately and it was his brother BN Prahlad who was given a ticket in 2018. Though the BJP thought that he would win, riding on a wave of compassion, their plans boomeranged as the Congress candidate Soumya Reddy won. Keeping this in mind, the BJP did not want Bengaluru South to go the same way.

Reason 2

Sources within the BJP reveal that Modi wanted Rajajinagar MLA Suresh Kumar to contest so that he could induct him into the Cabinet, in the event BJP won the elections. But Suresh did not honour the request chiefly because he wanted to concentrate on state politics, and two, sources add he wasn’t happy that his name was being considered in the last minute, as an alternative.

Reason 3

As strange as it may sound, the state BJP leaders canvassed against Tejaswini’s candidacy. If sources are to be believed, the state leaders were apprehensive about her growth on the national firmament as they felt she would go on accumulating more clout, thereby pushing them to the backburner. So the state BJP leaders vehemently advocated the candidacy of Tejasvi.

Reason 4

Modi and Shah have always attacked the Gandhi family for dynasty politics. That being the case, if Tejaswini was given a ticket, they were of the opinion that they would be axing their own leg. However, one could also argue that Tejasvi is the nephew of sitting Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya. But this, as per sources, doesn’t have much weightage.