'Guru-shishya' contest on the cards in Chamarajanagar

A Guru-shishya contest is on the cards in Chamarajnagar with senior BJP leader and former minister V Srinivas Prasad agreeing to contest against sitting MP R Druvanarayana of the Congress.

Prasad has won from Chamarajnagar five times between 1980 and 1999 - four times on a Congress ticket and once as a JD(U) candidate. Later on, Prasad decided to enter state politics and contest Assembly polls.

Druvanrayana won from the constituency in 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Prasad is the political mentor of Druvanarayana, a fact which the latter has acknowledged openly at various public forums.

“I wanted to retire from electoral politics, but decided to contest as desired by my supporters,” Prasad told reporters in Bengaluru on Friday after meeting BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa.

Prasad quit the Congress in 2016 after he was unceremoniously dropped from the Siddaramaiah Cabinet. He unsuccessfully contested from the Nanjangud Assembly segment, which he represented for two terms, in the by-election which followed.

Congress sources said that Druvanarayana will be given the ticket to re-contest from Chamarajnagar.

Yeddyurappa said he welcomed the decision of Prasad to contest the Lok Sabha polls.