BENGALURU: NDA candidate for the Channapatna bypoll Nikhil Kumaraswamy on Sunday prepared the ground for his grandfather, former PM HD Deve Gowda, to hit the campaign trail by highlighting the contributions of the latter in the Vokkaliga heartland.
“If not for Deve Gowda implementing the Iggaluru dam, imagine what would have been the irrigation situation of Channapatna? Elderly farmers still remember his contributions and also his padayatra to Bengaluru from Channapatna when a farmer, Krishne Gowda, died in police shooting during the struggle for water,” Nikhil said during a roadshow.
He drove home the point that the Gowda family has a close bond with Channapatna.
“My father and grandfather taught me how to behave in public life. I was not ready to contest the bypoll having lost two elections, but was forced to do so as the interests of the party came first. We had offered C P Yogeshwara (Congress candidate from Channapatna) the JDS and also the BJP ticket, but he rejected them,” he said.
He claimed that Congress, despite being the alliance partner with JDS during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, conspired and defeated him in Mandya and Deve Gowda in Tumakuru. “If DK Suresh won the Bengaluru Rural LS polls then, it was because of the contribution of JDS workers,” he said.
Throughout his roadshow, which he launched at Makali village, he received a rousing welcome as he covered 15 villages.
CM: Wasn’t Nikhil Abhimanyu after Mandya, Ramanagara?
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday hit back at Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy for stating that his son Nikhil will not become Abhimanyu, but will emerge victorious as Arjuna in the Channapatna bypoll. “Wasn’t he (Nikhil) Abhimanyu when he lost the Mandya Lok Sabha polls in 2019, that too when Kumaraswamy was chief minister, and also when he lost the Ramanagara Assembly polls in 2023,” the CM said. Nikhil, who is taking on Congress’ C P Yogeshwara, responded that the Congress has laid a ‘Chakravyuha’, as it did in Mandya and Ramanagara, but he will overcome it this time.