Congress Nominates Actor Shivarajkumar's Wife Geeta For Shimoga Constituency (Photo on X A Sharadhaa @sharadasrinidhi)

Geetha Shivarajkumar, who joined the Congress party on April 2023 has been nominated from the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency. She is the wife of Kannada actor Shivarajkumar and the daughter of the late Congress chief minister S. Bangarappa. In her electoral debut as a Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) nominee in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Ms Shivarajkumar lost from Shivamogga (Shimoga) constituency to the BJP’s B. S. Yeddyurappa. 

The nomination of Geetha Shivarajkumar who is also the sister of Karnataka minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa is learnt to provide a tough competitor to the sitting BJP MP B. Y. Raghavendra who has been fielded again from the seat. Earlier this year, actor Shivarajkumar had said that he wishes his wife either become MP or MLA, noting the need for women”s representation in politics, hinting at his potential poll campaigns for his wife. She has a self-declared asset of more than 17 crores and has no criminal cases registered against her as per her affidavit.

Shimoga seat has a total of eight assembly segments, all in Shimoga district while one belongs to Udupi district. However, the seat has been one of the important constituencies which veteran BJP leaders including the former Karnataka chief minister B. S.Yediyurappa represented.

Yediyurappa won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections while B. Y. Raghavendra from the BJP emerged victorious in 2019 with more than two lakh majority. The constituency has more than 250,000 electorates from scheduled Tribes and scheduled castes combined. The seat comprises 200,000 voters from Lingayats, more than 160,000 voters from Deevaru, around 150,000 from Muslims, and almost 105,000 from Brahmins and Vokkaligas.

While joining the Congress party, Geetha Shivarajkumar had remarked that the party holds a historic relevance and that she always had a liking for the grand old party.