A definite political unknown, no-one was sure if he was a native or a 'parachute' nominee from the high command. A money bag or a grassroots worker?

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In fact, Venkataramanegowda aka 'Star Chandru' hails from Kannaghatta village in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district. Born into a family of agriculturalists, Chandru completed his schooling in the district and then worked hard to come up in life. Settled in Bengaluru now, he started a construction company, Star Infratech, which employs around 4000 people. Being close to Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy, Star Chandru was introduced to the party national leaders, who were soon convinced of his potential to win the Lok Sabha seat from Mandya.

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The Congress which had tasted success in the 2018 Assembly polls by fielding new faces has now fallen back on the same formula to test the waters of Mandya, In 2019 parliamentary polls, the Congress Party didn't field it's candidate in Mandya following a pact between two coalition partners, Congress and Janata Dal Secular, and worked jointly for Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of the then CM H.D.Kumaraswamy. But failed.

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Their opponent had been Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of actor and politician, late M.H.Ambareesh, who defeated Nikhil by a margin of over 1.25 lakh votes.

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The Congress Party's experiment with new faces, began two years ago when it fielded Dinesh Guligowda for the Legislative Council polls from local bodies, who won comfortably. Similarly, the party fielded G Madhu Made Gowda, a former MP from Mandya, who always championed the cause of Cauvery waters. Madhu also won the election easily from Mandya in the Assembly election. In the last Assembly polls, K.M.Uday, an industrialist, romped home from Maddur Assembly constituency.

Star Chandru is already on a roll, launching a 'people contact' program by visiting villages in all eight assembly constituencies. He has been meeting local workers, leaders and legislators to work for his victory. A few MLAs took Chandru with them to their respective constituencies to introduce him to the voters.

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Star Chandru, always on the outside looking in, has a network of family contacts. His brother, K.H.Puttaswamygowda is an Independent MLA from Gowribidnur, elected in the 2023 Assembly polls. Puttaswamygowda's daughter is married to Sharath Bachegowda, Congress MLA from Hoskote. His father, B.N. Bachegowda, interestingly is the BJP MP from Chikkaballapur, setting off murmurs that the stalwart could be mulling joining the Congress.