Dr Cholenahalli Nanjappa Manjunath, also known popularly as Dr CN Manjunath, emerged as one of the big winners in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. In his debut election, Dr Manjunath knocked it out of the park as he won from the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seat.
He secured a humongous 10.79 lakh votes and a vote share of 56.21 per cent. Dr Manjunath's victory in the constituency was not an easy one. The soft-spoken cardiologist, who contested on a BJP ticket from the seat, was faced with a Herculean challenge from DK Suresh, the sitting Congress MP and brother of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
Even though DK Suresh had to bite the dust in this Lok Sabha election, he still managed to secure a little over 8.07 lakh votes and a vote share of 42.16 per cent. But who is Dr CN Manjunath, who broke the halo around the DK brothers in Bangalore Rural?
Dr Manjunath is an accomplished cardiologist and is the former director of the government-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research. The Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, regarded as one of the largest dedicated heart hospitals in Asia, is a tertiary care autonomous healthcare institute healthcare institute run by the Karnataka government in Bangalore with additional centres in Mysore and Gulbarga.
Under his leadership, the healthcare institute adopted the 'Treatment First and Payment Next' approach, which was praised by former US President Barack Obama. He has also served as the president of the Indian College of Cardiology. In 2015, he was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contributions in the field of medicine.
The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) gave him a honorary degree of Doctor of Science. He married the daughter of Janata Dal (Secular) chief and former Prime Minister of India HD Deve Gowda. His life has also been documented in Biography of a living legend written by veteran journalist MK Bhaskar Rao.
After winning from the seat, Dr Manjunath called it the "people's victory". He said that he assessed that he could win by around 50,000 votes to around 2 lakh votes. "When we interacted with people, many expressed their desire to elect me, and this has come true. We want to develop health, education, basic amenities and the farming sector in this constituency," he said.