United on Channapatna, Nikhil tells JD(S) workers

NT Correspondent Ramanagar: JD(S) Karnataka youth wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy sought to allay the fears of party workers that internal friction in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was causing a delay in announcing the candidate for the Channapatna byelection. He made the comments on Sunday at the SR Kalyana Mantapa at Kanakapura town in Ramanagar district where the JD(S) undertook a membership drive and booth campaign committee. He said that the JD(S) and BJP were united in their effort to retain Channapatna.

He added that former Channapatna MLA and BJP MLC CP Yogeshwar was on board as well. “There will be no confusion on part of the JD(S) as far as the ticket is concerned,” Nikhil said. “Along with this, CP Yogeshwar has told his supporters to help the NDA candidate. In the end, an NDA candidate will contest and people will bless him,” he added. Yogeshwar had been the five-time MLA and the incumbent in Channapatna until 2018. However, Kumaraswamy himself had contested from Channapatna in the 2018 Assembly elections, finally displacing Yogeshwar.

The rivalry only grew more bitter when Yogeshwar played a key role in Operation Kamala in 2019 when 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs were poached by the BJP, toppling the coalition government and with it Kumaraswamy from the Chief Minister’s chair. Kumaraswamy went on to retain Channapatna in 2023 against Yogeshwar. Things opened up for Yogeshwar when Kumaraswamy won from the Mandya Lok Sabha seat, bagged a berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet and quit as Channapatna MLA.

Yogeshwar is now trying to regain his stronghold in the by-poll for the seat even as JD(S) workers insist on fielding one of their own. It is clear that there will be a single Channapatna candidate from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners.