Bengaluru: The Mandya parliamentary constituency is set for a high-profile election, with Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda announcing that the candidature would be decided by the BJP central leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The decision will be jointly taken by Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda along with former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deve Gowda has said.
His statement came in the light of Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambarish — who had trounced Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil in 2019 — meeting Modi and Nadda on Friday seeking to retain the seat for the BJP in the alliance.
“Over three days during next week, I, along with party leaders, will travel across all the eight assembly constituencies in Mandya. We will go united and seek opinions from party workers on the possible candidate. Our party high command will convey this to BJP leaders. Ultimately, they will decide. We will adhere to the decision,” Deve Gowda told the media Tuesday in Mandya after holding a meeting with district leaders.
The former prime minister has said that the BJP national leadership will have the final say in candidate selection in Karnataka. There are 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
“Kumaraswamy will give details about how many votes we secured in various elections. He will then share this with (Amit) Shah …it might take a week or two …at the Delhi level, a decision will be taken in consultation with Kumaraswamy.”
Once considered its bastion, the JD(S) is now fighting hard to retain Mandya as well as its Vokkaliga vote base, leaving Sumalatha under a cloud of uncertainty.
In 2019, Sumalatha, the actor-wife of late Kannada cine star and politician Ambareesh (M.H.Amarnath), made history by becoming the first Independent MP from Karnataka.
The BJP that had backed her in 2019 is taking its time to finalise the Lok Sabha seat-sharing agreement with the JD(S), forcing Sumalatha to reach out to the BJP national leadership for convincing it to help her retain the seat.
ಮಂಡ್ಯ ಲೋಕಸಭಾ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಚರ್ಚಿಸಲು, ತಮ್ಮ ನಿರಂತರ ಕಾರ್ಯದೊತ್ತಡದ ನಡುವೆಯೂ ನನಗೆ ಸಮಯ ನೀಡಿದ್ದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ, ಭಾರತ ದೇಶದ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಮಂತ್ರಿಗಳಾದ @PMOIndia ಸನ್ಮಾನ್ಯ ಶ್ರೀ ನರೇಂದ್ರ ಮೋದಿರವರಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು. @narendramodi ಶ್ರೀ ನರೇಂದ್ರ ಮೋದಿರವರು ವಿಶ್ವದ ಮಹಾನ್… pic.twitter.com/60y9sX7H53
— Sumalatha Ambareesh 🇮🇳 ಸುಮಲತಾ ಅಂಬರೀಶ್ (@sumalathaA) February 9, 2024
“I have presented my case saying that if the BJP retains the seat, it can build the party there because when compared to other places, it does not have a very strong base in Mandya yet. And if we give up this seat, it will be very challenging in the coming times,” Sumalatha told ThePrint.
She added that conceding the seat to the JD(S) would result in the BJP losing all momentum it gained, like higher vote share in the 2023 Karnataka election.
‘Seat sharing discussed only in Delhi’
On Monday, Shah held a cluster meeting for the Lok Sabha polls in Mysuru, about 125 km from Bengaluru. This cluster includes constituencies like Mysuru-Kodagu, Mandya, Chamrajanagara and Hassan.
The BJP state leaders, who attended the session, said that Shah gave a roadmap on how to approach the elections and overcome the 2023 assembly polls.
“There were no discussions on any individual seat. All alliance discussions, seat sharing will be taken at the NDA meeting in Delhi,” senior BJP leader C.T.Ravi told ThePrint.
Insiders in the JD(S) say the party is unlikely to let go of Mandya, which is about 90 km from Bengaluru. The district is at the heart of Karnataka’s farmer movement and the Cauvery river water agitation — a core constituency for the JD(S).
Mandya is also the heartland of Vokkaligas, a dominant land-holding caste group that is said to back the JD(S) and its patriarch Deve Gowda.
“We have asked for Mandya, Hassan, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura and Kolar. Since we have a better ground presence in these parts, it is but natural that we will ask for these seats,” a JD(S) leader said.
A bigger factor at play is that Kumaraswamy is said to be in contention from Mandya to increase the chances of winning. The two-time Karnataka CM and his son, Nikhil, have denied this even though speculations have only increased in recent weeks.
The BJP-JD(S) alliance and the Congress, leaders from all three parties say, will find candidate selection challenging since there are not enough suitable ones. The Congress has asked at least six sitting ministers to contest and the BJP is likely to replace at least half of its MPs, people aware of the developments say.
Also Read: Hanuman flag or Tricolour? How a flag post has become a flashpoint in this Karnataka village
‘Cinema gimmicks’
Mandya gained prominence after Sumalatha jumped into the poll fray after her husband’s demise in 2019. Flanked by Kannada movie stars Darshan Thoogudeepa and Yash, Sumalatha, a senior actress, converted Mandya into possibly the most anticipated poll clash.
She stood in the way of the electoral debut of then sitting chief minister H.D.Kumaraswamy’s actor son Nikhil. The Congress and JD(S) had formed a post-poll alliance after a fractured verdict in 2018 and extended it to the Lok Sabha polls.
Having won all eight seats in Mandya district, the JD(S) and Kumaraswamy were confident of Nikhil’s success. The move was also to level up with Kumaraswamy’s elder brother H.D.Revanna, who was fielding his son Prajwal from Hassan. The family feud continued to manifest itself and the two brothers have tried to get the better of each other in recent years.
“We are not in favour of Sumalatha. In 2019, Ambareesh had died and there was a sympathy wave. We also fell for the cinema gimmicks. But this time we are not so sure,” Krishne Gowda, a 57-year-old farmer from Mandya, told ThePrint.
But he concedes that the people might just end up voting for her if the BJP and the JD(S) declare Sumalatha as the alliance candidate from Mandya.
‘Positive vibe’
In 2019, the Congress was unwilling to name Sumalatha as its candidate from Mandya. Ambareesh was also denied a ticket from the district in 2018 as he had fallen out of favour with Siddaramaiah, people aware of the developments said.
They added that the Congress offered Sumalatha a ticket from Bengaluru South anticipating Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, widow of Ananth Kumar, would be the BJP’s candidate. But, Sumalatha did not budge and contested from Mandya.
The odds were stacked against her as Karnataka had never in its history elected an Independent MP. But, with no suitable candidate and miffed with the Congress-JD(S) post poll alliance that denied it a chance at power, the BJP threw its might behind Sumalatha to help build a base in a district where it had little or no presence at all.
Sumalatha defeated Nikhil by over 1 lakh votes. Later in 2019, K.C.Narayana Gowda, the JD(S) legislator from K.R.Pete in Mandya, defected to the BJP and was able to retain his seat, giving the party its first ever assembly election victory from the district. Now Sumalatha hopes to keep this momentum going.
“They (BJP leadership) sounded very positive and asked me to remain confident. I cannot reveal everything that was discussed but they gave me a very positive vibe,” Sumalatha told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)