Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress' Sowmya Reddy aims to become Bengaluru's first woman MP with historic win

Bangalore never had a woman member of Parliament, and Sowmya Reddy of Congress wants to make history. She is taking on MP and BJP Youth Wing chief Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South segment in the coming Lok Sabha elections.  

Bangalore never had a woman member of Parliament, and Sowmya Reddy of Congress wants to make history. The 41-year-old, who previously served as the Jayanagar MLA, is no stranger to politics. She was devastated to lose by just 16 votes in her attempt to win reelection in this city constituency during the previous year's Assembly elections.

She is taking on MP and BJP Youth Wing chief Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South segment in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Bangalore South is a BJP stronghold. This sector was represented by the late H N Ananth Kumar, a Union Minister, for six terms in a row beginning in 1996. Sowmya, the daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and a prominent Congress politician, seems unfazed.

The party has thrown its weight behind her, as have head Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shiva Kumar, who is also the state Congress head. Sowmya alleged that Surya, President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, has not only spread hate and indulged in divisive politics since the last five years but also did not speak up for Karnataka in Parliament. 

Bangalore South is divided into eight seats for the Assembly. The Congress won three and the BJP won five of the Assembly seats in 2023. When praising the late Ananth Kumar for his work as a parliamentarian, Sowmya was very kind.

Sowmya was generous in her praise of late Ananth Kumar as a Parliamentarian. Although Ananth Kumar was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), she said that the only reason the party remained in power for so long was because of his ability to work across party lines and maintain a relationship with his constituency even after elections.