Coaching academy owner fielded by Congress stuns minister K Sudhakar

Eshwar runs Parishrama Education Pvt Ltd, which provides coaching for entrance examinations to medical and other competitive courses, and which he once opened with help from Sudhakar. Eshwar’s wife is a teacher at the institute.

In the run-up to the campaign, Eshwar gained in popularity with his fiery speeches, making him a social media sensation. In one of these, which went viral, Eshwar compared himself, an “orphan” and a Class 12 pass, to Sudhakar, a medical doctor, and said: “Let’s see if the doctor wins or the teacher of doctors.”

Eshwar first came to limelight in 2016 with a protest demanding that the government declare Vijipura in Devanahalli, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, a taluk.

While that protest failed, Eshwar surfaced in 2017 in Chikkaballapur, this time as an anchor for a local television channel. Soon he was on YouTube, uploading short, 1-2 minute videos against Sudhakar.

A Congress worker says his videos levelling allegations against Sudhakar as also some TV journalists led to several cases against him.

In 2018, Eshwar took up the case of the death of a young Congress worker in alleged police lathicharge, which led to his arrest and further lifted his profile.

Soon, Eshwar, who belongs to the OBC Balija community, had got the support of K V Naveen Kiran, who contested the 2018 elections as an Independent against Sudhakar and lost. Then, Sudhakar, who till then was in the Congress, shifted to the BJP as part of the 2019 defections.

Kiran followed Sudhakar, as did Eshwar. With their help, he started the Parishrama academy, which turned out to be a great success.

In November 2022, Kiran became the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation vice-chairman, even as the distance between Eshwar and Sudhakar grew.

According to a former BJP worker, as the Congress looked around for a strong face against Sudhakar, it identified Eshwar. By then, Sudhakar had been drawing a lot of attention for high-profile events like Chikkaballapur Utsav, attended by celebrities from Kannada and Telugu film industry.

“Sudhakar spent money lavishly on these events, and many BJP local leaders who were sidelined asked where the money was coming from. Some of these BJP workers apart from Congress leaders of the region helped Eshwar reach the Congress headquarters,” the former BJP worker said.

As per sources, Eshwar impressed the Congress leadership with the videos he had done against Sudhakar. “We had nothing to lose. His speaking skills were very good, and he was an OBC leader,” a Congress leader, who was part of the Saturday meeting after Eshwar’s win, said.

For his campaign, Sudhakar brought in celebrities like Kiccha Sudeep and Telugu comedian Brahmanandam. Eshwar had by his side virtually his videos and speeches, and approached voters stating he did not have money to afford such massive campaigns.

Earlier a Congress stronghold, the BJP (the constituency) has about 1.95 lakh voters, with 60,000 SC/ST voters and nearly 40,000 Balija voters. The Vokkaliga votes here are usually split between parties while Balija votes are consolidated.

Eshwar is believed to have got SC/ST votes, apart from his community’s.

As he emerged as one of the giant-killers, Eshwar shared a photo of his victory celebrations. He was holding a picture of B R Ambedkar.