Bangalore: Pramoda Devi jumps into 2014 LS poll fray

The widow of Srikantadatta Narasimha Wadiyar, Pramoda Devi, is set to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha election as the JD(S) candidate from the Mysore-Madikeri constituency.

Pramoda Devi’s late husband, scion of Mysore’s erstwhile royal family was three time MP, twice from Congress and once on BJP ticket.

The Congress, the BJP and the JD(S) were trying to get the widow of Wadiyar to contest on their ticket, but the JD(S) seems to have succeeded.

The BJP which was also pinning its hope on Pramoda Devi – as Wadiyar had in the past contested on the party ticket. But after Yeddyurappa and company rejoined BJP, Shobha Karandlaje has been projected as the candidate for the constituency, and her bitterest critics in the party have started supporting her candidature.

During the Yeddyurappa regime, Karandlaje, who won from Yeshwantpur assembly constituency in Bangalore, was put in charge as district in charge minister of Mysore district. Her term as the district in charge minister did not go down well with the Vokkaliga section of the BJP local unit as used to make caustic remarks about the then chief minister Sadananda Gowda.

If both the BJP and the JD(S) field women candidates in Karandlaje and Pramoda Devi, the Congress too might follow suit, in which case, Ramya, currently MP from Mandya might shift to Mysore-Madikeri, allowing the Congress leadership to weigh Mandya as a possible safe seat for Rahul Gandhi.