BENGALURU: Karnataka Janata Dal (United) president Mahima J Patel, son of former chief minister JH Patel, called on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in Patna, Bihar, on Sunday and staked a claim to contest as NDA candidate for the bypolls to Davanagere South Assembly constituency. The seat fell vacant following the demise of senior Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Mahima is likely to meet HD Deve Gowda and convey Nitish’s message of holding deliberations with the former PM to strengthen the JDU-JDS bond.
Mahima, along with state JDU general secretary Chandrashekar Gangur, met a host of JDU leaders, including the party’s national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Manish Kumar Verma, Bihar ministers Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Ramnath Thakur, and MoS for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, JDU national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, and MLA Damodar Ravat during his two-day visit to Patna.
“Nitish Kumar has promised that he will speak with national BJP leaders on the alliance in the bypolls, especially in Davanagere South,” Mahima told TNIE over phone, adding that he will make a comeback to electoral politics as there is pressure from his sympathisers.
Mahima said that the JDU may also seek certain seats in the 2028 Karnataka Assembly polls as the party is part of the NDA. Mahima further claimed that a few leaders who are not on good terms with the state unit of the BJP are keen on joining the JDU.
It may be recalled here that when the Janata Dal split in 1999, Deve Gowda floated the JDS opposing the decision to enter into an alliance with the BJP. But the Sharad Yadav faction of Janata Dal joined the NDA and became the JDU.
Ahead of the 2028 Assembly polls, all the anti-Congress political outfits are planning to step up a united front under the leadership of Deve Gowda to defeat the Ruling Congress, said informed sources.