Kumaraswamy, GTD moot contesting Lok Sabha polls

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Contenders from the JD(S) have thrown their hats into the ring as far as tickets for next year’s Lok Sabha elections are concerned.

JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy, who is an MLA from Channapatna is reportedly considering contesting from Chikkaballapura.

Chamundeshwari MLA GT Deve Gowda is also said to be interested in contesting from Mysuru against BJP MP Pratap Simha. Other contenders include former minister KN Gaddi who wants to contest against Union Minister Prahlad Joshi from Dharwad, Nasir Bagwan who wants a ticket from Belagavi and CS Puttaraju, who is a former MP from Mandya wants a crack at the seat again.

Core Committee to play key role

The disclosure comes in the backdrop of JD(S) Core Committee led by GT Deve Gowda is all set to tour the state from September 1 and submit a report in October.

The report would cover recommendations for Lok Sabha candidates, Zilla and Taluk Panchayat polls and party re-organisation. Puttaraju, for instance, had won Mandya back in 2014.

However, in 2019, Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil lost the seat to BJP-backed independent Sumalatha Ambareesh by more than 1,25,000 votes.

Nikhil made his electoral debut since Puttaraju had contested the 2018 Assembly elections from Melukote in Mandya district and won. However, he lost to Sarvaodaya Karnataka Paksha (SKP) from the same seat back in May, freeing him to contest Lok Sabha polls.

Nikhil has been advised by his father to take a break from politics for five years and focus on his acting career. The suggestion came after his loss in the Assembly elections from JD(S) stronghold Ramanagara to NA Iqbal Hussain.

Party sources said that the aspirants had only expressed initial interest, adding that there were already “strong candidates” in 12 of the 28 parliamentary constituencies.

Others insisted that the Core Committee would play a decisive role in finalising candidates.

Crisis deemed existential

JD(S) by Kumaraswamy’s own admission is facing an existential crisis.

The regional outfit saw its seat tally dip from 37 in 2018 Assembly polls to a measly 19 and vote share plummet alarmingly from 18.3 per cent in the previous polls to 13.3 per cent this time around.

Congress led by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah are reportedly trying to engineer the defection of twothirds of JD(S) MLAs (at least 13) so that the rebels retain the party symbol and are able to skip by-polls.

In 2017, Siddaramaiah as CM had poached seven JD(S) MLAs. Sensing urgency, party patriarch HD Deve Gowda on Monday even made an emotional plea to workers to “stay with him”.

The regional party had been considering an alliance with the BJP but JD(S) MLAs led by GT Deve Gowda and Holenarasipura MLA HD Revanna said they feared losing Muslim votes if they were to contest polls alongside the saffron party.

On July 25, Deve Gowda had declared JD(S) would go it alone in the general elections. Kumaraswamy holds that the party has a realistic chance of bagging four Lok Sabha seats.