Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy under pressure to contest from Mandya to counter Congress dominance

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

HD Kumaraswamy may spring a surprise by choosing to contest from Mandya in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as pressure is slowly building up on him.

Mandya district, with seven assembly seats, was such a stronghold of the JDS that it won all the assembly seats in the 2018 assembly polls. But a series of electoral reverses for the regional party in its own pockets of Vokkaliga dominance is also one of the factors fuelling demands for the ex-CM to contest from here.

The regional party has got into the election preparedness exercise after party’s national president HD Deve Gowda, along with Kumaraswamy & others, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, cementing the bonhomie the two parties have established.

Kumaraswamy, who is also the JDS Karnataka president, had said he would not contest the LS polls while announcing that the seat sharing pact with the BJP would be finalised next month.

This has led to a competition among the JDS aspirants to contest from Mandya as many of them have become ex-MLAs.

There are speculations that Kumaraswamy would change his mind and take the plunge in Mandya to help his party re-claim the party’s lost glory in the sugarcane belt. The region is dominated by Vokkaligas, the second largest community in Karnataka, who consider Deve Gowda as their tallest political figure.

The JDS leader had also ruled out his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy contesting the LS polls.

But sources say the former CM may field his son from Channapattana, the seat he will have to vacate in the event he wins in the election. His earlier staunch rival, BJP’s CP Yogeshwar is rumoured to contest from the Bengaluru Rural Seat, currently held by DK Suresh of the Congress.