JD(S), Congress reach pact on Ramanagara, Jamkhandi poll

BENGALURU: Ruling coalition partners JD(S) and Congress have reportedly agreed to mutually help each other in the forthcoming by-elections to two seats of the state assembly. As per the pact, the Congress is likely to extend support to the JD(S) in Ramanagara, a Vokkaliga bastion, and JD(S) will support Congress in Jamkhandi, a Lingayat stronghold.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the date for the by-elections before October 10.
Bypolls were necessitated after chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, who contested and won from both Ramanagara and Channapatna constituencies, resigned from Ramanagara seat and also because of the demise of Siddu Nyamagowda, sitting MLA in Jamkhandi, in a road accident just a few days after the polls in May.
Anitha from Ramanagara, Anand from Jamkhandi
After days of brainstorming, the JD(S) and Congress have also zeroed in on its candidates for the polls. While JD(S) has decided to field Anitha, wife of Kumaraswamy, the Congress will field Anand Nyamagouda, son of late Siddu Nyamagowda. The opposition BJP, on the other hand, is struggling to find strong candidates to take on Anitha and Anand.
Earlier, Kumaraswamy’s arch-rival, C P Yogeeshwara was expected to contest against Anitha, but he has decided against it at the last minute. This has forced the BJP to field a greenhorn. In Jamkhandi, the BJP is expected to field Shrikant Kulkarni, who lost to Nyamagouda by a slender margin of 2,800 votes in the polls in May.
Sources said Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil, an actor, was keen on contesting, but party supremo H D Deve Gowda quashed the move fearing criticism of the JD(S) becoming an ‘appamakkala’ (father-son) party. For the record, Kumaraswamy held a party worker’s meeting in Ramanagara on Wednesday to comfort party workers who were demanding a ticket to Anitha.
Anitha, who owns a TV channel, isn’t new to politics. In 2008, she made her political debut by winning the Madhugiri assembly Bypoll in Tumakuru district. In the 2013 assembly elections, Anitha contested from the Channapatna seat and lost to Yogeeshwara by a huge margin. She also lost in the 2014 Bengaluru rural Lok Sabha polls against sitting MP, DK Suresh, brother of water resources minister D K Shivakumar.
Yogeeshwara, who is believed to have been an active member of the BJP’s efforts to “poach candidates” over the past few months, has said he will contest from Ramanagara only if the party “funds” his campaign. He is said to have told BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa that he has “exhausted” all his resources in the 2018 assembly elections, which he lost to Kumaraswamy. He is believed to have said that if the party wants to field him, then it will have to fund his candidature.
The other names being considered by the BJP for Ramanagara are M Rudresh (BJP district president), Venugopal (a local leader) and Praveen Gowda (Ramanagara taluk president).
‘BJP IS READY FOR BATTLE’
In a declaration that he is itching to contest, BY Raghavendra, son of BJP president BS Yeddyurappa, said he is “ready to contest parliamentary elections”. “I am ready to contest again from Shivamogga. Our party is always ready for battle. Congress-JD(S) fighting as allies will not work in Shivamogga.”