Indrajit Lankesh the brother of late journalist Gauri Lankesh has been seen campaigning for a BJP candidate in Bangalore, for the upcoming Karnataka assembly election, as reported by Firstpost.
As per the report, brother Lankesh was campaigning for Dr Ashwath Narayan – the BJP candidate from Malleshwaram. This was confirmed by senior state BJP leader Sobha Karandlaje:
Gauri Lankesh’s brother Indrajit campaigns for BJP. #BJP4BetterKarnatakapic.twitter.com/7Jyr06tdF2
— Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) May 9, 2018
While speaking about this decision, Indrajit claimed that while he didn’t identify with any particular political ideology, the BJP candidate was his good friend. Indrajit later started heaping praises on him. He claimed that many from the BJP and the JDS had asked him to campaign for them but was reluctant owing to him having his own ideology.
The report has also quoted Indrajit holding Siddaramaiah responsible for his sister’s death, which he blames on a complete failure of law and order. He also rued the fact that she wasn’t given protection by the state government while she was involved in rehabilitating former Naxals. He also alleged that crime had increased under the Congress government which had rendered women and journalists unsafe.
Indrajit’s decision to campaign for a BJP comes after he has time and again rebelled against the predominantly leftist disposition.
Soon after Gauri’s death he had punctured the “Right wingers killed Gauri Lankesh” narrative by claiming that she had been receiving threats from Naxalites for trying to convert left extremists and bring them into the mainstream. This had resulted in him getting attacked by left wing trolls for not towing their agenda.
We had also reported how he had boycotted “Gauri day” which saw an active participation of hardcore leftists like Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mewani. The reason given by him was that the event was sponsored by Siddaramiah and the investigation was only going in the direction in which they wanted it to go.