Stars on her side, Bangarappa daughter hopes to upset BSY

For the past one month, Shivaraj has been so immersed in the election campaign of his wife — JD(S) candidate and daughter of maverick former Congress chief minister S Bangarappa who died two years ago — that he has been away from her side only on the death anniversary of his legendary father Rajkumar.

His wife Geetha has been fielded against Lingayat strongman and former BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa for the Shimoga seat.

The constant presence of Shivaraj in his wife’s campaign creates the impression that the first family of Kannada cinema is breaking a ban, self-imposed by Rajkumar on the family’s entry into politics.

It has been raining Kannada film stars in Shimoga since March when Geetha was chosen by H D Devegowda’s JD(S) to be fielded in a region made his own by Yeddyurappa in the days he was the CM.

Alongside Shivaraj and his wife on the campaign truck Tuesday were Kannada film heroes Sri Murali, Vijay Raghavendra and Tilak. On Monday, it was actress Ragini Dwivedi, and a few days ago it was superstar Upendra.

Conspicuous by their absence in this rain of tinsel town stars, however, have been key members of the Rajkumar family itself, giving rise to the suspicion that Shivaraj’s foray with his wife into politics has not gone down too well with the rest of his clan.

There is talk of his mother, a powerful Kannada film industry figure Parvathamma Rajkumar, expressing fears that the first family of the industry has lost its standing as a neutral but influential family in the state because of Shivaraj and his wife political ambitions.

A combination of tinsel town stars and remnants of the charisma of socialist leader S Bangarappa — who was elected to Parliament as a candidate of his own Karnataka Congress Party, the BJP and SP — is creating the semblance of a strong fight between Geetha and Yeddyurappa.

The reality, however, is that Yeddyurappa is sitting pretty in Shimoga on account of being identified with much of the development in the region — the roads, drinking water, the schools and colleges, including an engineering college run by his family trust (that is at the centre of a corruption probe for allegedly receiving bribes when Yeddyurappa was CM).

Once a sleepy, agricultural town, Shimoga is now an aspiring city with malls, big hotels, hospitals, call centres, top banks and financial institutions. Much of the credit for this is bestowed on Yeddyurappa by locals.

In her campaign, Geetha is in fact asking people to back her like they backed her father. “Please support Bangarappa’s daughter in the manner you supported Bangarappa,” she says in Shimoga city.

“Geetha’s campaign is largely dependent on Shivaraj and the old goodwill towards Bangarappa. That has diminished to a large extent as it has been nearly two years since he died. It is Yeddyurappa who developed Shimoga so he commands support from the grassroots level,’’ says Prakash Kumar, a rickshaw driver.

The entry of an estranged son of Bangarappa, former Congress minister Kumar Bangarappa, in recent days to campaign against his sister for Congress candidate Manjunath Bhandary, has also resulted in the Yeddyurappa camp losing little sweat over the election.