The Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) has fielded retired IAS officer Bulla Subba Rao as its candidates against Congress state chief G Parameshwara in Koratagere reserved constituency for scheduled castes in Tumkur district.
The party’s state president Marasandra Muniyappa on Saturday released the first list of 93 candidates. The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which has associated with the BSP, has fielded 17 candidates, mainly in Bangalore City, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.
The BSP has fielded a transgender Sowmya from Gandhinagar, who would be taking on Congress’ Dinesh Gundu Rao and JD-S’ candidate Subhash Bharani. Usually political parties shun fielding transgenders but the BSP wanted to show it is different, Muniyappa said.
Bulla Subba Rao, who retired as principal secretary of the Housing Deparment seven years ago, began his bureucratic career way back in 1973-74 as revenue officer in Tumkur. Six years ago he joined the BSP. Now he has taken a house on rent in Koratagere.
Another retired officer who is going to contest is Ramaiah Shivaram from Ramanagara, where JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy is contesting. Shivaram was a general manager of the Karnataka State Industrial Development Corporation. The other major BSP candidates who are going to contest are - Koramanagala Muniyappa (Madhugiri), Nagesh Lakshmeshwar (Karwar), P Srinivas (Anekal-SC), Mareppa (Kampli-ST), V Marappa (Bellary rural- ST).
SDPI list
The SDPI, which is four-years-old, is active in 23 states across the country.
The candidates going to be in the fray are - Hemalatha (Pulakeshi Nagar); Abdul Majeed (Narasimharaja), Moulana Usman Baig (Chamarajpet), Syed Fakhruddin (Hebbal), Dr Mohammed Rafeeq (Bijapur), Abdul Jaleel (Mangalore South), Abdul Hakeem (Kapu), Abdul Majeed (Bantwal), Abubaker Kuli (Mangalore North), Ismail Engineer (Mudabidri), Kusappa (Sullia) and K A Siddiq (Puttur).
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