JDS clinches Kolar MP seat from BJP to contest

BENGALURU: It took a while for the Bharatiya Janata Party to decide on scarificing Kolar parliamentary seat for its alliance partner the Janata Dal Secular to contest and eventually on Saturday BJP leader and Karnataka incharge Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal announced that JDS will be contesting Kolar Lok Sabha seat and stated in seats contested by BJP, JDS will support the nominees and vice versa. Kolar Lok Sabha seat is represented by Muniswamy of BJP.

JDS and BJP are alliance partners in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre and are fighting the Lok Sabha election by fielding consensus nominees. As per the alliance, JDS is contesting Hassan, Mandya and Kolar while the 25 seats will be contested by BJP candidates.

With both the parties claiming Kolar, sources said that the alliance between JDS and BJP looked for a split. Even JDS leaders had expressed displeasure over the attitude of BJP leaders towards their party and accused BJP of initiating “unilateral” decisions.

Considering their strength in Kolar Lok Sabha seat both JDS and BJP were keen on contesting the seat on their symbol. However, there was no communication from BJP on sacrificing the seat to JDS. Kolar is represented by BJP nominee Muniswamy in Lok Sabha.

Kolar BJP President Venugopal told Deccan Chronicle that BJP has also staked claim over Kolar seat and stated that BJP ended runner-up in Kolar Lok Sabha seat in some of the previous polls before it won in 2019 election through its nominee Muniswamy.

“Even voting patterns indicate BJP influence over Kolar seat,” he said and assured that BJP workers will work for the success of JDS nominees, if the seat is sacrificed to JDS.

Sources in Kolar said JDS strongly claimed Kolar seat because it took into consideration the voting pattern of previous elections both Lok Sabha and Assembly, besides, 3 incumbent MLAs are from JDS in Kolar, giving it an edge in the seat.

When election results of previous elections are taken into account, Kolar has proved to be a strong hold of the Congress party since its nominee K.H. Muniyappa, currently Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in Siddaramaiah cabinet, won the seat on a trot in the elections held from 1991 to 2014. In the 2019 election, Muniyappa of Congress party lost to BJP’s Muniswamy by a margin of 2.10 lakh votes.

Getting Mandya and Hassan parliamentary seats from BJP, JDS has fielded its incumbent MP Prajwal for Hassan Lok Sabha seat while Mandya seat would be contested by State JDS President and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. But, no official announcement on his contest from Mandya yet and either on Sunday or Monday.

JDS and Congress party are yet to name their nominees for Kolar.