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Bengaluru: Flip-flop of R. Ashok-V. Somanna upset BJP leadership?

Interesting, neither Ashok nor Somanna were present on Tuesday when Mr Surya filed his nomination.

Bengaluru: Are there subtle forces and hidden currents at work in the Bengaluru South constituency where the BJP came up with a shock of sorts choosing young Tejasvi Surya, a BJP youth wing leader to take on the seasoned Congress candidate B.K. Hariprasad? Is this a deliberate attempt to cut the BJP's Bengaluru strongmen like former Deputy CM R. Ashok and Govindrajnagar MLA V. Somanna to size after they virtually gave the go-ahead to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, to launch her poll campaign only to be snubbed by the party top brass?

Interesting, neither Ashok nor Somanna were present on Tuesday when Mr Surya filed his nomination. A highly placed source in the party said it was a clever move by the leadership to reduce the clout of the 'city syndicate' run by Ashok and others. "Our south Indian organizing secretary B.L. Santhosh's intervention in the case of Bengaluru South might be because of some strong reason. Why did he not intervene in the case of Udupi MP Shobha Karandlaje, Uttara Kannada MP Anantkumar Hegde or other MPs who are facing strong anti-incumbency? Why only Bengaluru South? The answer is simple: The Bengaluru city unit was run like a syndicate by Ashok and others. During the 2018 assembly elections, because of the 'adjustments' this group made with rival parties, the party suffered a beating falling behind the Congress in the number of seats though it had won three of four parliament seats in 2014. The party wanted to stop this and felt the selection of the candidate for Bengaluru South was the best way to start the process. Santhosh did not do this when he was the party in-charge of Karnataka a long time back but he has now cast the first stone," sources said.

The other reason for the party changing its stand was the flip-flop of Ashok and Somanna on the candidature of Tejaswini. Initially, both leaders had opposed her candidature tooth and nail for some reason but, midway, they reversed their stance and favoured her which might have irked central leaders, sources said.

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