'Voice vote' to decide JD(S) candidate for Shimoga seat

Former chief minister S Bangarappa’s son and sitting Janata Dal (S) MLA from Soraba, Madhu Bangarappa, on Wednesday said his family would take a ‘voice vote’ of the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituents to finalise the candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

However, sources in the JD(S) say Gita, the daughter of Bangarappa and wife of actor Shivarajkumar, the son of the late thespian Rajkumar, was the “most preferred” candidate.

Madhu said the family would seek a voice vote at a JD(S) party event scheduled after March 15 as to who from the family will be the candidate. “Let the people of Shimoga decide who they want as their representative,” he said.

Party list

The JD(S) will announce its official list of candidates for all the 28 constituencies in the next two to three days, party leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said.

Addressing mediapersons here on Wednesday, he said the party’s parliamentary board would begin the process of finalising its candidates in the next few days. “Under the leadership of our national president H D Deve Gowda, we will be finalising the list of our candidates.

The final list will be announced later this week,” he said. On the possibility of another member of his family being fielded from either Bangalore Rural or Chikkaballapur — wife Anitha Kumaraswamy or son Nikhil Gowda — Kumaraswamy said a final decision in this regard was not yet taken.

He said the party workers in both constituencies wanted one of Gowda’s family members as their candidate. Kumaraswamy said the JD(S) was open for a pre-poll alliance if any of the 11 parties in the Third Front intended to contest from Karnataka.

“We are ready for talks on an alliance in the State for one or two seats provided the party’s parliamentary board takes a decision in this regard,” he said.