Bengaluru, March 15 : Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, K.S. Eshwarappa, announced on Friday that he will contest as an Independent candidate from Shivamogga in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Eshwarappa announced this after a meeting with his supporters in Shivamogga on Friday.

B.Y. Raghavendra, the son of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, is the BJP candidate from Shivamogga, while the Congress has fielded Geetha Shivarajkumar as its candidate from the seat.

Geetha Shivarajkumar is the daughter of late former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa, and the sister of state Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa. She is married to Kannada superstar Shivarajkumar.

Meanwhile, Eshwarappa said on Friday that he will contest the polls as an Independent nominee to highlight how the state BJP is under the clutches of Yediyurappa's family.

"The Hindutva activists are pained over family politics in the state," he said.

Reacting to the development, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that he never 'cheated' Eshwarappa, adding that he had even told the party high command to give ticket to Eshwarappa's son K.E. Kantesh based on social justice.

Talking to reporters in Haveri, from where he is contesting, Bommai said he was not aware of the meeting convened by Eshwarappa.

"I had requested to consider Kantesh for Gadag-Haveri based on social justice. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP President J.P. Nadda asked me to contest from the seat. That is why I am contesting from Haveri," Bommai said.

The senior BJP leader also said that Eshwarappa has built the party in the state of which he is a loyal soldier.

Bommai also said that he along with Union Minister Pralhad Joshi will speak to Eshwarappa.

/IANS