BENGALURU, 8 JUNE

A long-standing family feud between senior BJP leader Kumar Bangarappa, son of former chief minister late S Bangarappa, and his sister and Shivamogga losing Congress candidate Geetha Shivarajkumar turned ugly on Saturday. Fans of Kannada superstar Shivarajkumar barged into the residence of Kumar at Sadashivnagar over some derogatory comments he posted on Facebook.

Police arrived at the spot to quell the mob and detained the protestors. 

After his sister Geetha’s defeat, Kumar put up a post on Facebook, criticising her for ‘misusing’ their late father, former chief minister S Bangarappa’s, name. In the post, he also mocked his brother-in-law Shivarajkumar, suggesting he need not fear unemployment and could start applying to perform at religious fairs in the villages of Shivamogga district.

Angered by this, the protestors forcefully entered the leader’s residence chanting slogans against Kumar. Security was beefed up at Kumar’s residence as a platoon of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) was deployed to keep the protestors at bay.

Shivarajkumar’s wife, Geetha Shivarajkumar was pitted against BJP candidate BY Raghavendra in Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat as a Congress candidate. Raghavendra won the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat by a comfortable margin of 2.43 lakh votes. Kumar, who is close to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s family, had campaigned for Raghavendra.

Kumar Bangarappa’s brother, Madhu Bangarappa, is the Minister for Education in the Congress government. -Salar News