Sowmya Reddy will be a formidable opponent for Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South

Tejasvi Surya, the head of the BJP youth wing and current Member of Parliament for Bangalore South, is up against fierce competition from Sowmya Reddy of the Congress for re-election.

The 41-year-old Sowmya, a former Jayanagar MLA from this area and the daughter of Minister Ramalinga Reddy, was defeated in the previous year’s Assembly elections by a paltry 16 votes.

Bengaluru South, which is comprised of eight Assembly seats, has been a BJP stronghold since 1991. The Congress won three and the BJP won five of the Assembly seats in 2023. Actually, since 1977, Congress has only triumphed here once, that being in the 1989 elections, when the late R Gundu Rao, the former chief minister, won.

This seat, which had a sizable Brahmin population, has been mostly represented by locals.

The chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar have thrown their support behind Sowmya, hoping to reverse the tide against the BJP. They have done all in their power to improve her chances of winning.

BJP current MP Tejasvi Surya is up against Congress contender Sowmya Reddy, daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.
Sowmya Reddy vs. Tejasvi Surya: The youth war in Bangalore South
The daughter of the Transport Minister, Sowmya, emphasises how the ‘Shakti’ promise has made it possible for women to travel across the state at no cost in non-luxury government buses. The Congress is relying significantly on these five assurances.

“Are you bus travelers? Which locations have you recently visited? Do you pay for your journey or do you get it free? Sowmya inquired of female voters at a recent roadshow.

Sowmya also makes it a point to inform people about the other four guarantees—”Gruha Lakshmi,” “Gruha Jyoti,” “Yuva Nidhi,” and “Anna Bhagya”—while canvassing.

“‘Achchhe Din’ was brought by whom? Is it the BJP or the Congress? For which ‘Achchhe Din’ would you cast your vote?” In his contacts with voters, Surya, like many other BJP candidates, highlights the progress the nation has achieved in the last 10 years under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Looking back ten years, the status of our economy is described in depth in the white paper, using extremely clear and concise language. Our economy was regarded as one of the worst in the world. We now rank among the top five economies. This transition from the fragile five to the top five exemplifies the strengthening of our institutions, according to Surya.

The 33-year-old president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has been hosting discussions with right-wing intellectuals in his area, particularly those connected to the RSS and “Sangh Parivar.”