[3][4] He entered politics dramatically in 1996 after a stint as a film actor donning lead roles in many Kannada films, when he was asked to contest the by-election to fill the vacancy in the Soraba constituency of Shimoga district - which his father represented from 1967 to 1994 - seven times in a row - till he got elected to the Lok Sabha, making way for his son.
[11][12][13] He is now elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Government of Karnataka for the 2018 Legislative Assembly from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he won by defeating his brother Madhu Bangarappa by a huge margin of 13,500 votes by getting 72,000 votes.
[citation needed] He entered politics as a stranger from the film industry without wielding any influence, even when his father was Chief Minister; however, a rift in the family developed ahead of the 2004 elections, when his younger brother Madhu Bangarappa wanted to contest only from Soraba and not from any other constituency even when the family did not want him to upsurge a family rift, on promise father S Bangarappa had to go against the wish of people and Kumar Bangarappa taking stance for the younger son Madhu.
While Kumar stayed away from politics for a few weeks thousands of people wanted him to contest and on the request of them he had to make a political decision to contest against his own brother on a congress ticket while Madhu on the BJP ticket, and retained the seat with a huge margin of 24,000 votes, it was the first time that S. Bangarappa was defeated though his own son had won.
[14] At one stage, he even resigned Congress and left his minister of state portfolio to join BJP as per the directions of his father and returned to Congress soon when he felt uncomfortable in the BJP camp, bringing the family feud matters into the open public.