'If you are not with Modi, you are with anti-India forces': Tejasvi Surya's speech that made him an internet sensation

Surya has said the candidature comes with a mix of "surprise and a sense of gratitude."

Speaking to ANI, Surya said: "It is a mix of surprise and sense of gratitude. Have been an active karyakarta from days in ABVP; It is the only party that recognises the potential of karyakartas."

Surya, who will be contesting from the seat that late BJP leader Ananth Kumar held earlier, added: "Tejaswini ji (wife of late Union minister Ananth Kumar) has given me her blessings, she has also instructed all the karyakartas who were anticipating her candidature that the party's decision is the foremost decision and we all have to respect it." 

Late Union Minister Ananth Kumar's wife Tejaswini said that she was shocked but will stand by the party's decision.

"It is shocking to all of my supporters and also to me. At the same time, I have been telling them and to myself that it is very important to show that we are a party with a difference. This is the time to show our maturity and to work for the country. Let's not think of small things and our bigger goal is nation first," Tejaswini told ANI.

"I stand with the party's decision. Let's not start asking questions. If we have to contribute to the country then we have to work for Modi Ji," she said. 

The BJP central leadership announced in the early hours Tuesday the name of Surya, a lawyer and the party's national social media campaign team. He will take on Congress Rajya Sabha member B K Hariprasad. The reason behind projecting Surya, said BJP sources, was to build a second line of young and talented leaders who can lead the party and the nation.

Endowed with oratorial skills, Surya was involved in strengthening the party base in the city as well as in coastal Karnataka, especially around Mangaluru and Udupi, the BJP strongholds.

Highly politically conscious Bangalore South has remained anti-Congress since 1977, barring once when former late chief minister R Gundu Rao got elected in the 1989 polls.

Bangalore South has eight assembly segments, with BJP holding five and Congress three after the 2018 assembly polls. True to its cosmopolitan nature, the constituency has considerable share of Brahmin, Vokkaliga and Muslim voters and a mix of upper and middle-class voters.

The constituency was under the hold of the erstwhile Janata Party after the 1977, 1980 and 1984 general elections and from 1991-2014 in successive parliament elections, BJP has maintained its grip, mostly with Ananth Kumar, who first got elected to Lok Sabha in 1996, as MP. 

Senior leader Ananth Kumar, who died last year after battling cancer, represented Bangalore South for six terms and had defeated IT czar Nandan Nilekani in the 2014 polls.