Karnataka bypolls: Congress banks on Kusuma Hanumantharayappa to retain RR Nagar

The Congress is almost certain to field Kusuma Hanumantharayappa as its candidate for the Rajarajeshwari Nagar bypoll.

“It’s mostly Kusuma,” Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah said in Mysuru when asked about the Rajarajeshwari Nagar bypoll candidate. An official announcement is awaited from the party’s high command.

The Congress is banking on Kusuma, 31, to win and the party’s poll managers say her candidature might swing the November 3 election. Kusuma was the wife of IAS officer DK Ravi, who died in March 2015.

According to the Congress poll managers, Rajarajeshwari Nagar has some 4.8 lakh voters of whom one lakh are Vokkaligas, 70,000 Dalits, 70,000 OBCs, 50,000 Kurubas, 45,000 Lingayats and 25,000 Muslims.

With Munirathna as its candidate, the Congress won Rajarajeshwari Nagar in 2018. Last year, however, Munirathna was disqualified and he later joined the BJP, necessitating this bypoll.

“With Kusuma as the candidate, the Rajarajeshwari Nagar bypoll will be a photo finish,” a senior Congress leader said. “That it is a woman, she’s a Vokkaliga and her father Hanumantharayappa being an old-timer in the constituency will be enough to give the BJP a run for its money. We hope to consolidate the Vokkaligas and the Muslims will not vote for the lotus anyway,” the leader said.

The Congress is also hoping that Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh will use his personal clout to draw voters towards the party. Suresh has declared that he will be the face of the party in Rajarajeshwari Nagar , an assembly segment that falls under his Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency.

Kusuma’s father Hanumantharayappa unsuccessfully contested the 2008 election to Rajarajeshwari Nagar on a JD(S) ticket. “It depends on what Hanumantharayappa will do in attracting the support of the JD(S) at the local level for the bypoll, given that he was earlier with them. Otherwise, there’s no formal political understanding that we have with the JD(S),” the leader said.

Kusuma holds an MS degree in information technology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is currently an assistant professor of computer science engineering at Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering.