HD Kumaraswamy to contest Mandya Lok Sabha Seat to Revive JDS Fortunes

BENGALURU: State Unit President of Janata Dal Secular (JDS) and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has more or less agreed to the one-line resolution of the Mandya Unit of Janata Dal Secular (JDS) which had invited him to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha election from Mandya seat, disclosed former minister C.S. Puttaraju, a close confidante of Kumaraswamy. Kumaraswamy is the incumbent JDS MLA representing Channapatna in Ramnagar district.

However, an official announcement on the candidature for Mandya will be made on March 25 after Kumaraswamy returns from Chennai where he has been admitted at a hospital for his heart surgery. Kumaraswamy is all set to be the JDS-Bharatiya Janata Party consensus nominee since two parties are part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre.

Asked why Kumaraswamy would be the candidate for the Mandya seat, Puttaraju said it has been a collective decision of party leaders of Mandya. As per the alliance between JDS and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), parliamentary seats of Hassan, Mandya and Kolar have been left for JDS to contest while rest of 25 seats will be contested by BJP.

On the contest by Kumaraswamy, sources said with an aim to revive the fortunes of JDS in Mandya, Kumaraswamy is set enter the contest from Mandya Lok Sabha seat and they pointed out that Mandya has been a strong hold of JDS yet its nominees lost Assembly elections held in May 2023 in the seats of Mandya, Malavalli, Nagamangala, Melukote, Maddur and Srirangapatna. In the 2023 election, JDS nominee H.T. Manju won Krishnaraja Pete seat.

Another reason for Kumaraswamy to contest the Mandya seat is because the sources told Deccan Chronicle that BJP leaders were not in favour of fielding Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son for H.D. Kumaraswamy from Mandya which might have made Kumaraswamy to take on the contest for himself considering that the Congress party has consolidated its position in Mandya.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Nikhil contested as a JDS-Congress party consensus nominee against his nearest rival Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent in the fray. Sumalatha defeated Nikhil in the election.

Prior to 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, Sumalatha announced her support for BJP and is an aspirant for the Mandya seat from BJP. Sumalatha Ambareesh is adamant on her stand to contest from Mandya on a BJP ticket and she is said to have held discussions with Central leaders in New Delhi including BJP National President J.P. Nadda to get a BJP ticket. She told reporters that the seat for Mandya has not been finalized yet.

A couple of months back, the supporters of Sumalatha had cautioned BJP leaders that their leader would contest as an independent nominee if the Mandya seat was sacrificed for JDS by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the Congress party announced businessman Venkatamane Gowda as its nominee for Mandya seat and he has kickstarted his campaigning in the seat.