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Captain Gopinath to fight BJP strongman in LS polls

March 31, 2009 17:13 IST

Captain Gopinath, who will fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate, will take on Bharatiya Janata Party's strongman Ananth Kumar in the Bangalore South constituency.

Captain Gopinath, who will file his nomination papers on Friday, has roped in some prominent personalities like Infosys founder Narayan Murthy and Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar Shaw to campaign for him.

However, the road ahead for Captain Gopinath seems tough, as Ananth Kumar has won three times in a row with a comfortable margin.

After the delimitation exercise, the majority of voters in Bangalore South are from the Vokkaliga community, which has traditionally voted for Ananth Kumar, a Brahmin.

However, the Vokkaliga community might change its mind this time as they have started identifying the BJP with the Lingayat community. Hoping to cash in on this factor, the Congress has fielded Anand Byre Gowda, a Vokkaliga leader, as their candidate for Bangalore South.

To garner votes, Captain Gopinath will rely heavily on the up-market BTM layout area, which includes the IT-heavy Koramangala, which has been added to the Bangalore South constituency after delimitation.

Vicky Nanjappa