Sao Paulo city elections a Lula-Bolsonaro proxy battle, Lula says

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that Sao Paulo's municipal elections later this year are shaping up to be a proxy battle between the leftist president and his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

The southern hemisphere's biggest city will head to the polls in October to elect its next mayor and city councilors.

Lula said in a radio interview on Tuesday the vote looked set to provide a snapshot of voter sentiment towards the two prevailing political currents in Brazil.

"Things will be very special in Sao Paulo," Lula said. "It's a direct confrontation between the former president and the current president; between me and that figure."

Bolsonaro won the most votes in Sao Paulo when he was elected president in 2018, but Lula turned things around four years later when he denied Bolsonaro a second term, carrying the city of some 11.4 million people in 2022.

Brazilians do not elect federal lawmakers or governors in mid-term elections, but the vote tends to be seen as a proxy for the government's support ahead of the next general election in two years.

Lula will support leftist congressman Guilherme Boulos of the Socialism and Liberty Party for mayor, while Bolsonaro is expected to back conservative incumbent Ricardo Nunes of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, who will seek re-election.

Lula's Workers Party is set to appoint Boulos' running mate. The president has personally worked to lure former Sao Paulo Mayor Marta Suplicy back to the party to run in that position, a move that was seen as a direct blow to Nunes.

Suplicy, who is seen as more moderate than Boulos, served as Nunes' foreign relations secretary until recently.

"I'm very happy that I managed to convince Marta, and I think we can win the election," Lula said.

Lula's Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, was mayor of Sao Paulo in 2012, but lost his re-election bid.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo and Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Mark Potter)