The jinxed fortunes from Bangalore Rural constituency for the Deve Gowda family may be making H D Kumaraswamy look for a new turf - Chikkaballapur - which has sizeable a Vokkaliga population.
Despite having been loyal to Kumaraswamy, the Bangalore Rural constituency is now almost a lost cause for the Gowda family, say political pundits. The JD(S) itself seems to have given up hopes of wresting back the control of Bangalore Rural from D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh of the Congress. According to a senior JD(S) leader, the DK brothers are going ‘all out’ to ensure that Kumaraswamy loses hold on the region.
In addition, C P Yogeeshwara, MLA from Channapatna, quit the SP to join the Congress. With such a driven opposition, the JD(S) is finding it tough to re-establish its supremacy.
Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda himself lost from the constituency (then known as Kanakapura seat) against Tejaswini Gowda, a novice then backed by Shivakumar in 2004 and Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha lost the elections twice in less than six months in 2013.
Anitha lost the first time as a candidate from the Channapatna Assembly constituency (which is part of the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency) during the 2013 Assembly elections, and the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha byelections, when she lost to D K Suresh.
During his passionate speech in Chikkaballapur on Thursday, invoking the water crisis in the constituency and the alleged false promises by the Congress and BJP on the Yettinahole project, Kumaraswamy said that he will not ‘disappoint’ the people of the constituency.
He said that the people of Ramanagar will surely ‘bless him,’ if he proposes to fight from Chikkaballapur. However, he has put a rider, saying his mother would have to permit him for this.
Deve Gowda appears to have tacitly approved Kumaraswamy’s ‘change of heart’ to contest from Chikkaballapur, if the latter intends to.
“I am no one to decide as to who people should vote for in Chikkaballapur. I agree that there is a lot of pressure from the people for him to contest from there,” he said.
Promise to workers
Kumaraswamy promised party workers in Chikkaballapur on Thursday that he would contest the elections from the constituency.
When he said that he needed time for a couple of days to take a final decision, after discussing with senior leaders, the party workers refused to budge and wanted him to commit himself on fighting the polls from here.
Finally, he agreed and asked the cadre to seek votes in his name. He will decide on the date of submitting the papers in a couple of days.