While seemingly playing a “Vokkaliga card”, Congress candidate for Mysore-Kodagu constituency M. Lakshman on Friday, March 22, said the party fielded a candidate from the Vokkaliga community in the constituency after a gap of nearly four decades. After Tulsidas Dasappa in 1977, the party fielded him in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he said, while attacking the BJP for denying tickets to Vokkaligas including D.V. Sadananda Gowda and also Pratap Simha.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was labelled Anti-Vokkaliga. Today, I have been given a ticket. With this, the Congress has given a fitting reply to the BJP. The vote share of Vokkaligas is perhaps the second largest in the constituency. I describe myself as a common man with a good education background. I have no political background and I belong to a farmers’ family. I can be a good MP if he gets a chance this time,” he said, during his interaction with the media.
