BENGALURU: Noted
cardiac surgeon
Dr
C N Manjunath
, former Prime Minister H D
Deve Gowda
's
son-in-law
, took the plunge into politics on Wednesday as the BJP announced his candidature from
Bangalore Rural constituency
in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
BJP on Wednesday announced its fist list of 20 candidates in Karnataka, which has a total of 28 seats. Manjunath, who met veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday, will be taking on incumbent MP D K Suresh, the brother of deputy chief minister and State Congress chief D K Shivakumar.
BJP and JD(S) are in an alliance in Karnataka and, according to sources, JD(S) will contest in three Lok Sabha seats-Mandya, Hassan and Kolar-and an agreement was reached between the two parties to field Manjunath on the BJP symbol.
Manjunath headed the state-owned Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research for 17 years before retiring in Jan this year. Welcoming Manjunath to BJP, Yediyurappa said his joining has strengthened the party, and both PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah expressed happiness about him contesting polls. "When such people contest, they should be elected unopposed, but election is inevitable in politics," Yediyurappa said. PTI
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