BENGALURU: When JDS leader and former CM HD Kumaraswamy recently announced that his son Nikhil will contest the 2023 Assembly polls, he did not reveal which constituency the latter would pick. Now, there is talk that he would run from Maddur.
Then, former minister DC Thammanna, father-in-law of HD Deve Gowda’s son Dr Ramesh, will have to pave the way for Nikhil. Thammanna has been told that he would be given a ticket to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Mandya.
Though Nikhil, who had lost against Sumalatha in the 2019 LS polls, wanted to avenge the defeat by contesting the 2024 polls, he has been told by the Gowda family to contest the Assembly polls. The Assembly segments of Ramanagar, Channapatna and Maddur that are next to each other are all represented by JDS. Anitha Kumaraswamy and Kumaraswamy are MLAs from the first two seats.
Besides, the Gowda family expects the move to have a cascading effect in the entire Mandya district, where the party is strong. If Nikhil contests from Maddur, there will be strong opposition as Doddarasinekere in the constituency is the birthplace of late actor Ambareesh and chances of Sumalatha fielding her son Abhishek cannot be ruled out, a source told TNIE.
Former minister Chaluvarayaswamy, who has switched from JDS to Congress, may advice Sumalatha to join Congress. It will also be interesting to see if Siddaramaiah would back Abhishek to defeat Nikhil. But the grapevine also has it that Abhishek may contest from Mandya.
In the recent past, there was talk of Anitha sacrificing her Ramanagar seat to Nikhil. But the family decided against it as JDS needs adequate numbers of MLAs and it is possible only if all the politically active members in the family fight the polls. Chances of former minister HD Revanna’s wife Bhavani also contesting from any of the seats in Hassan district cannot be ruled out, another source said.