As the BJP’s surprise candidate from Bangalore North in 2004 Sangliana had defeated Congress veteran C K Jaffer Sharief.
And so the Congress has gone out of its way to favour the 66-year-old to contest from the newly formed Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency.
“I am not considered among the hardcore politicians, and I don’t want to consider myself in that list, as it has lost credibility among people. I take this as a service, as people know me as a police officer and I believe the image that I have built during service will work for me in this election,” Sangliana told Express.
A day after his candidature was announced in New Delhi, Sangliana first touched base with the Congress legislators representing the assembly segments of his constituency. “I believe in the work that I have done during my last term as MP of Bangalore North. Though I was deprived of discharging my duties as an MP, I remained serving the people of my constituency and attending to their problems to the best of my ability,” he said.
Though he had pipped Jaffer Sharief in securing the much-coveted Bangalore Central in 2004, this election is going to be a tough road ahead for Sangliana. The constituencies witnessed seriuos changes after the 2008 Assembly elections. BJP has grabbed 17 of the 28 assembly segments across the expanded city. Sangliana can only bank on four legislators of the Congress, which is again a divided house.
However, Sangliana is confident of winning as he believes that though his constituency consists of diverse communities cosmopolitan enough to judge a candidate based on merits.
P K Paul, media coordinator for Sangliana said, “The voters are aware of the Sangliana’s efforts as MP of Bangalore North.
He was one of the few MPs from the state who fully utilised the corpus of Rs 2 crore annually for developing the constituency.”
