Congress aims to wrest Mandya from JD(S)

"As many as 20 JD(S) leaders have joined the Cong, including Madhu Bangarappa, YSV Dutta, (MLA from) Kolar Srinivas Gowda, Gubbi (MLA) Srinivas, Kantharaj Manohar and Vishwanath"

Maqsood Maniyar| NT

Mandya: Congress on Friday rolled out its Praja Dhwani Yatra into the Janata Dal (Secular) stronghold Mandya, while presenting itself as the best alternative in the Assembly polls due in May. Party bigwigs played up concerns about JD(S) joining the BJP in a post-poll alliance, bringing what they claim would be a “very corrupt” government.

Interestingly, the JD(S) won all seven constituencies in Mandya district in the 2018 Assembly elections, a fact that Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar acknowledged.

The regional party had won all seven segments in the district by handsome margins, stretching to tens of thousands of votes. Congress had secured the second place in all but one of those seats. Seeking to upstage their earlier performance, thus break the JD(S) monopoly, senior leaders of the grand old party tried different ways to woo the voters.

Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah alleged that Kumaraswamy had been opportunistic in siding with the BJP in a coalition government in the past. He also claimed that My Sugar factory was being mismanaged, so that Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh R Nirani could buy it.

Shivakumar on the other hand reminded people that it was the Congress that fought the hardest to get the Mekedatu project implemented, so that large swathes of Mandya district could receive drinking water.

“Don’t trust the JD(S). Now, there is a struggle between us and the JD(S). We made Kumaraswamy the chief minister. As many as 17 MLAs left us because he could not take care of them. Kumaraswamy went on to say that I was the cause of the coalition government falling. If I sent our MLAs (to the BJP), then did you send JD(S) MLAs?”

Siddaramaiah asked, adding that Congress had made Kumaraswamy the CM despite being the larger party in the coalition because they wanted to keep the “communal” BJP out of power. He said that the JD(S) cannot come to power on its own and therefore not worth voting for.

Defections, a factor?

Shivakumar pointed out that several local JD(S) leaders had joined the Congress. He claimed that this was because they knew their former party was no longer relevant. “As many as 20 leaders have joined the Congress, including Madhu Bangarappa, YSV Dutta, (MLA from) Kolar Srinivas Gowda, Gubbi (MLA) Srinivas, Kantharaj Manohar and Vishwanath. Are they foolish?” he asked. “They concluded that the JD(S) could no longer provide any future to the state."