Bengaluru: Bengaluru South has been a BJP bastion since 1998. Former Union minister Ananth Kumar had served as MP for five terms. But the death of the minister in November 2018 has caused the BJP to field newcomer Tejasvi Surya.

Meanwhile, Congress has fielded veteran BK Hariprasad against Tejasvi Surya. This time, Bengaluru South recorded a voter turnout of 49.36%.

In 2014, Ananth Kumar secured 6,33,816 votes against Congress' Nandan Nilekani who secured 4,05,241 votes.

After the death of Ananth Kumar, there were rumours of his wife Tejaswini getting a BJP ticket to contest the Lok Saha election. She had even started campaigning, when news broke out that a young candidate of the RSS, Tejasvi Surya, had been given a ticket by the BJP.

The decision was initially met with opposition, but differences dissipated and even Tejaswini started campaigning for Tejasvi.

His opponent, BK Hariprasad is a veteran Congress leader and is the Rajya Sabha MP. Records state that he had lost against BJP's Ananth Kumar in 1999 Lok Sabha election. He is contesting in Bengaluru South exactly after a decade. 

The constituency includes assembly constituencies; Govindraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Chickpet, Basavanagudi, Padmanabhanagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar and Bommanahalli.

Even though Tejasvi is a newcomer in politics, Bengaluru South being a BJP bastion might prove advantageous to him. Hariprasad, however, no doubt, fancies his chances against a newcomer.