Kumaraswamy to take break from politics, focus on son's film

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy has decided to take a break from politics and focus his energies on his son’s film.

The decision comes after his party’s the abysmal performance in the BBMP elections. The JD(S) stood a poor third in the results tally. It could get just 14 seats of the 189 seats where it contested. In an interaction with Deccan Herald on Wednesday,  Kumaraswamy said he would be flying to Bangkok next week with his son Nikhil Gowda, who is playing the lead role in the film ‘Jaguar’.

The film, being produced by Kumaraswamy under the home banner Channambika Films, is the first movie project that the former chief minister is working on after a hiatus of seven years. “The results were completely disappointing and unexpected. Having invested all my energies into politics and the BBMP elections, I now feel that I should concentrate more on my son’s film, which is a project very dear to my heart. I have neglected films for a long time now. The film is being shot both in Kannada and Telugu and I have worked very closely on the storyline,” he said and added that the actual work on the film will start in November.

Though none of the party leaders are ready to own up to the fact that it lost because of its own doing, the JD(S) suffered a setback largely on account of the rebel effect and of course, its poor presence in the city. Kumaraswamy, while admitting that there was “backstabbing” by rebel leaders within the party, said that there were also wards like Laggere where the JD(S) candidate had managed to emerge victorious.

“But the party’s prospects were affected as the ruling Congress used administrative machinery for its advantage. There was rampant distribution of money and other incentives, which the police and election officials blinded themselves to,” he charged.

Sources in the party also conceded to the fact that trouble started brewing during the selection of candidates, where alongside Kumaraswamy, Chamrajpet MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan was calling the shots. Sources said Khan was insistent on fielding “bad elements”, which proved disastrous in several wards. The MLA had patched up with Kumaraswamy only a few months ago, owing to BBMP polls. Less than 24 hours after the results, it was learnt that Khan had left the City on some personal work.