BENGALURU: Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H D Kumaraswamy is showing all indications of emerging as NDA’s consensus candidate for the chief minister’s post in the 2028 Assembly polls. He, too, has reportedly said that he will return to state politics at an appropriate time.
With the state BJP facing internal bickering and factionalism, JDS appears to be projecting him as an alternative leader of the BJP-JDS alliance, political analysts said. He could nudge the state BJP leadership, which was not in a mood to cooperate with him, by ensuring that a coordination panel is set up soon. He held talks with BJP state president BY Vijayendra on the issue recently, they added.
Helped by his father and former PM H D Deve Gowda’s rapport with the BJP national leadership, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Kumaraswamy can turn the tide in his favour. He too has established a good rapport with BJP national president Nitin Nabin, with whom he spoke about cross-voting by NDA MLAs in the June 18 polls to seven MLC seats in the state.
Kumaraswamy seems to have scored brownie points against the state BJP by taking on his Vokkaliga compatriot and Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on the Bidadi Township project and the alleged mistakes committed by the ruling Congress government in the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list.
To impress upon the people of the state, he was quick to form JDS committees to study and assess the drought and flood situations across the state even before BJP did. He has been going all out to shed the party’s image of being influential only in the Vokkaliga bastion of Old Mysuru.
His son and JDS Youth Wing chief Nikhil Kumaraswamy is scheduled to visit farmers in Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts for three days from Monday. He is leading a team of senior leaders, including Kalyan Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka drought study team chief Bandeppa Kashempur.
Interestingly, JDS is likely to submit the reports by these committees to the Centre seeking financial support on its own. On Sunday, leader of opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka visited drought-affected farmers in Mandya district.