Ayanur Manjunath, MP and president of the BJP district unit, seemingly took a dig at Geetha Shivarajkumar, the JD(S) candidate for the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency, at a training programme for BJP workers here on Wednesday.
According to him, films are “a world of illusions”, while politics is a means to address the problems of the people. Voters in Shimoga were politically shrewd and knew that leaders didn’t emerge from cinemas, but from mass movements, he said.
Mr. Manjunath said political leaders should identify themselves with the masses and strive to address public issues. If actors were elected, they would remain inaccessible to common people, he said. He also launched a verbal attack against the late S. Bangarappa (Geetha Shivarajkumar’s father).
He said that even after representing Sorab constituency in the Assembly for many decades, Mr. Bangarappa had not taken initiatives to upgrade basic amenities there. However, B.S. Yeddyurappa, during his tenure as Chief Minister, had done so.
The delay by the JD(S) and the Congress in announcing their candidates for Shimoga had “exposed their weaknesses,” Mr. Manjunath claimed. He added that Mr. Yeddyurappa would file his nomination papers by March 20.
B.Y. Raghavendra, MP; M.B. Bhanuprakash and R.K. Siddaramanna, MLCs; and R. Lakshminarayan and K.G. Kumaraswamy, ex-MLAs, were present.
