BENGALURU: Former Chief Minister and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy, JDS and Bharatiya Janata Party consensus nominee, won Mandya parliamentary seat by defeating his nearest Congress nominee Venkataramane Gowda and through the win in Mandya seat, Kumaraswamy avenged defeat of his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy in 2019 election. Currently, Kumaraswamy represents Channapatna assembly seat in Ramnagar district.
Kumaraswamy polled votes 8, 51, 881 while Venkataramane Gowda secured 5, 67, 261 votes. Kumaraswamy served as Lok Sabha in 1996 representing Kanakapura Lok Sabha seat and again in 2009 winning Bengaluru Rural seat. It was the maiden contest of Venkataramane Gowda, a businessman, in electoral politics.
The success of Kumaraswamy in Mandya, sources said ‘swimming against the tide,’ after several leaders deserted the party to join the Congress party. Besides, the Congress party has 7 MLAs in Mandya Lok Sabha while the JDS has a lone MLA-H.T. Manju representing Krishnaraja Pete assembly seat.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Mandya JDS leaders passed a single line resolution to field Kumaraswamy from Mandya and he obliged to contest the seat in a bid to revive the chances of JDS in Old Mysuru region where JDS has been losing ground.
In the 2019 election, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Kumaraswamy contested the Mandya seat as a JDS-Congress party nominee and he lost to independent nominee Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late cine star Ambareesh.
Prior to 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka, Sumalatha expressed her support for BJP and was a strong aspirant for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat from BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Since, JDS and BJP are in alliance, she sacrificed her seat to JDS on the directions of the BJP high command and Kumaraswamy contested the seat.
Over the victory of Kumaraswamy in Mandya, sources attributed the success to his considerable fan base in Mandya and Venkataramane Gowda, a lesser known candidate to the district. Besides, the voters of Mandya voted for Kumaraswamy to compensate for the defeat of his son Nikhil in the 2019 election.
After registering victory, Kumaraswamy attributed his success to united efforts of JDS and BJP leaders and workers.
