K’taka polls: Siblings to slug it out, Ex-CM’s sons to fight from Soraba seat on Cong & BJP ticket

New Delhi: While Karnataka gets ready to elect new Legislative Assembly next month, one constituency that will draw extra spotlight is Soraba seat in Shivamogga district.

Two brothers of a family are pitted against each other on this seat and owing to their political affiliation, they will in direct contest against each other. As both are sons of former Karnataka Chief Minister late S Bangarappa, the poll race in Soraba constituency has become all the more interesting.

Kumar Bangarappa and Madhu Bangarappa, belonging to rival parties Congress & BJP will cross swords on May 10, as people go to polling booths to cast their ballot. The seat was held by their father late S Bangarappa from 1967 to 1994, till his election to Lok Sabha.

Not the first time clash

This is not the first time that siblings are fighting against each other for Soraba seat. They also fought against each other in 2018 Assembly elections.

Kumar Bangarappa is a BJP member and he won the seat in 2018 polls, defeating his younger brother Madhu Bangarappa, however by a small margin of 3,286 votes.

This time again, they will be battling it out for the coveted seat.

Kumar Bangarappa was with Congress earlier and he joined BJP prior to 2018 elections. Madhu Bangarappa, who was with the JD(S), made a switch to Congress in 2021.

Notably, their rivalry goes back to 2004 when their father was alive. Kumar Bangarappa has been elected from Soraba four times — in 1996 (by-poll), 1999, 2004 & 2018 while Madhu won the seat once in 2013.

The two brothers have also worked as actors in the Kannada film industry but then made a switch to politics and since then fighting it out to claim father’s political legacy.

Their electoral battle also turned nasty at times, as they leveled serious accusations against each other.