BENGALURU: The early announcement of candidates for 93 Assembly seats by Janata Dal Secular (JDS) for the forthcoming Assembly polls in the State had triggered dissent in Krishnaraja Pet Assembly segment of Mandya where a section of JDS workers have opposed the candidature of H.T. Manju while demanding the ticket for their leader B.L. Devaraj.
The candidature of Manju was announced by JDS leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and opposing the candidature of Manju, supporters of Devaraj held a public meeting in KR Pet town on Wednesday and wanted the party leaders to rethink on the candidate announced for KR Pet and demanded ticket of Devaraj. Both, B.L. Devaraj and H.T. Manju, are Zilla Panchayat members in KR Pet.
KR Pet Assembly seat has been a bastion of JDS until 2019 when its MLA Narayan Gowda switched loyalties to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and in the bypoll, Narayan Gowda of BJP defeated JDS nominee Devaraj. It was the first win for BJP in Mandya district which is a stronghold of JDS. Now, Narayan Gowda is the Minister for Sports in the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet.
Hoping to reclaim the lost seat, sources in KR Pet on Thursday stated that despite losing KR Pet bypoll, JDS has a strong base in the constituency. Regarding the selection of Manju as JDS nominee, the source said, Manju is a youth leader and had worked hard for the success of party nominees in local elections. The sources felt that JDS might want to groom a youth leader and selected Manju as its candidate for KR Pet.
JDS nominee Manju, speaking to Deccan Chronicle, said, prior to the selection of candidate for KR Pet seat, three surveys were conducted by JDS on winning factors of the candidates.
On the dissent, he said, the party leaders will initiate steps to settle the issue and accused that the BJP and Congress leaders have indulged in tactics to halt the pace at which JDS is going in the seat.
Over the public meeting held by Devaraj supporters in KR Pet, Manju said the public meeting had more of BJP and Congress workers than JDS party workers. “Nothing can stop JDS from winning KR Pet in the forthcoming poll,” he exuded confidence.
Earlier at a public meeting in KR Pet, JDS leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had stated that he would not bow under pressure from leaders especially ticket aspirants and had stated that he tried to convince disgruntled leaders but nothing substantial happened.
To elicit his reaction, JDS rebel leader B.L. Devaraj did not respond to repeated phone calls to him.
