R Dhruvanarayan seeks re-election for third term

Mysuru: Fifty-eight-year old R Dhruvanarayan, a two term MP and one term MLA, took out a huge rally before filing his nominations as the Congress-JDS coalition candidate for Chamarajnagar constituency (Reserved) at the DC's office in the district on Monday.

Minister Puttarangshetty, MLAs Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, R Narendra and Anil Chikkamadu joined him in the rally. Dhruvanarayan belongs to a Scheduled Caste and has done his MSc in Agricultural Sciences. He has declared himself as the proprietor of a petrol bunk and an agriculturist in his poll affidavit.

On the gossip doing the rounds in political circles that his BJP opponent V. Srinivasprasad was his political guru, and it was a fight between guru and shishya in Chamarajnagar, he replied, "People know the way I grew up and the way I have taken up developmental works in the constituency. It was Mallikarjun Kharge who gave me the ticket for the assembly election from Kollegal for the first time. One can check with him. The comments by BJP leader V Srinivasprasad  do not befit a politician of his stature."

On his relationship with Srinivasprasad, Druvanarayan said, “Yes, I was close to him. But he had done nothing for my development, my political base was in Bengaluru, I was recognised as a student leader when I studied in the Agriculture University in the early 1980s and was made State Youth Congress president by late S Bangarappa. And even when I shifted to Chamarajnagar in 1994 due to personal reasons,  Rajshekar Murthy helped me politically.”