MYSURU: After the severe drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the JDS has taken the Legislative Council polls in the district as a prestige issue. Though all three prominent political parties — the Congress, JDS and BJP — have fielded candidates, the contest is mostly between arch rivals JDS and Congress.
The regional party, with seven sitting MLAs, is working hard in the Vokkaliga stronghold as a victory in Mandya will prove that the community still solidly backs former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. The victory of party nominee Appaji Gowda will help keep its flock together as many are ready to jump ship and join the Congress.
The JDS youth wing chief, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, is campaigning extensively in the district. The party is also banking on Kumaraswamy’s commitment to the people of Mandya, the farming community and the special funds he had released for the development of Mandya.
Meanwhile, the BJP, which created history with Sports Minister K C Narayana Gowda winning the byelections from KR Pet constituency for the first time, is claiming that there are a decent number of gram panchayat members who are supporting their candidate Bookahalli Manju.
On the other hand, the Congress has fielded a novice, Dinesh Guligowda, who was an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Co-operation Minister S T Somashekar. Senior leaders N Cheluvarayaswamy, P M Narendraswamy and others, who turned the tables in favour of Sumalatha Ambareesh in the Lok Sabha elections against her rival Nikhil Kumaraswamy, are doing the spadework to win over fence-sitters and push the JDS to the wall.What worries the Congress is the tactical understanding between JDS-BJP and transfer of BJP’s second preference votes to the JDS.