Two BJP MPs Unwilling to Sacrifice Their Seats for Alliance Partner JDS
Bengaluru: Even as State Janata Dal Secular (JDS) State president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has maintained that there is no issue in seat sharing or with the alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two BJP Lok Sabha members-Sumalatha Ambareesh of Mandya and Muniswamy of Kolar have stated that they are in no mood to sacrifice their seats.
It is speculated that JDS has sought Mandya and Kolar parliamentary seats along with Hassan, Tumakuru, Bengaluru Rural and Chikkaballapura seats asking BJP to support consensus nominees. JDS State unit president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his son Nikhil met Union Minister for Home Amit Shah in New Delhi a couple of days back to finalise the seat sharing and the alliance partners-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are yet to announce the seat sharing between them for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
A senior JDS leader told Deccan Chronicle that JDS has sought more seats in Old Mysuru region from the BJP where the party has a considerable base.
In the 2019 election, JDS won a lone parliamentary seat-Hassan out of 28 Lok Sabha seats. Prominent from the JDS to lose the election was JDS national president and former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda who had contested from Tumakuru as a JDS-Congress consensus candidate. Then, the JDS and Congress party were in alliance in the State and had formed the Government.
For the JDS, Mandya has been its strong hold and in the 2019 poll, JDS nominee Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was fielded as a consensus candidate backed by Congress party and he was in a straight fight against independent nominee Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late Kannada cine actor and former minister Ambareesh.
In the election, Sumalatha defeated Nikhil. She announced her support for BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Karnataka Assembly election in 2023. Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Sumalatha said she had options in front of her but her struggle is to retain the Mandya seat.
In the ensuing election, Sumalatha is eager to fight from Mandya seeking re-election and she told reporters on Friday that she would wait for the decision of the BJP high command on seat sharing before chalking out her future course of action. She, however, exuded confidence that BJP central leadership would keep Mandya and help build the party in the seat which has been a bastion of Congress party and JDS till now.
Sumalatha supporters in Mandya have made it clear to the BJP central leadership that their leader would be fielded from Mandya as an independent if the seat is not declared for her.
Likewise, unwilling to spare the seat for JDS, Kolar MP Muniswamy said that he has confidence that would again be fielded from Kolar and also get re-elected from the seat. Muniswamy said seat sharing has not yet been finalized between JDS-BJP for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls and he said he has the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior party leader B.S. Yediyurappa.
