KOLAR: The Kolar Lok Sabha constituency, close to the state capital Bengaluru, is a battle to watch out for the general elections. The Kolar (SC Reserved) constituency, a strong Congress bastion, gave enough trouble for the Grand Old Party over the selection of its candidate.
The constituency was represented seven consecutive times by veteran Congress leader KH Muniyappa, who is now Food and Civil Supplies Minister in the state cabinet. But in 2019, his party legislators, including former Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar, worked against him, paving the way for BJP to taste victory here for the first time. BJP candidate Muniswamy won comfortably.
Even after the 2019 elections, the Congress high command and senior state leaders attempted to settle the differences between Muniyappa and Ramesh Kumar camps, but nothing positive came out of it.
Fast forward to 2024, and the story in Congress remained the same, with Muniyappa lobbying for a ticket for his son-in-law Chikkapeddanna and Ramesh Kumar and his supporters strongly opposing any candidate from Muniyappa’s family. As many as five Congress legislators, including Chikkaballapur district in-charge minister Dr MC Sudhakar, threatened to resign if Chikkapeddanna was given the Congress ticket. They and others from the Ramesh Kumar camp insisted that the ticket should be given to an SC right candidate.
The tussle led to Congress delaying the announcement and finally, it picked a candidate, KV Gowtham, from the SC left category, who is considered neutral to both camps. Gowtham, who is Bengaluru Central Congress president, is relatively new to voters in Kolar. Though he has the blessings of both Muniyappa and Ramesh Kumar, only the results on June 4 will reveal if all is well for Congress in Kolar.
In the last year’s Assembly elections, Congress won five and JDS tasted victory in three of the eight Assembly segments in this constituency,
The JDS-BJP alliance candidate is Mallesh Babu, who hails from Kolar. He had unsuccessfully contested twice on a JDS ticket from the Bangarpet Assembly constituency and in the 2023 Assembly polls, he lost to SN Narayanaswamy of Congress by a thin margin. JDS secured a considerable number of votes in Kolar, Bangarpet, Malur, and Chintamani. The JDS has strong leaders such as Inchara Govindaraj, MLC, and CMR Sreenath, and MLAs Ravikumar, Samruddhi Manjunath, and Venkatashiva Reddy, who will campaign for the party.
Mallesh belongs to the Bhovi community, and his mother, Mangamma Muniswamy, was a former president of the Kolar Zilla Panchayat.
The incumbent BJP MP, Muniswamy, tried hard till the last minute for the ticket, but had to give up his pursuit for the alliance candidate. Senior BJP leaders, including former MLA Y Sampangi and BJP’s Kodihalli Manjunath Gowda, who lost the 2023 Assembly elections to Congress by a thin margin, are campaigning for JDS, and this could boost Mallesh’s chances. However, without the full support of the alliance partner BJP, it will be difficult for him to finish first.
Though Congress has a strong base in Kolar, differences among Ramesh Kumar and Muniyappa camps could affect its prospects.
