This story is from October 23, 2018

Congress discontent: HDK, DKS make Anitha’s Ramanagara win their goal

Congress discontent: HDK, DKS make Anitha’s Ramanagara win their goal
Anitha Kumaraswamy
BENGALURU: Even as dissidence within the Congress and JD(S) simmers, two prominent families of the Bengaluru Rural region — those of chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and water resources minister D K Shivakumar — have decided to take control of campaigning in Ramanagara and have made it their mission to win the assembly seat.
Over 48 hours starting Saturday evening, Kumaraswamy held campaign and closed-door meetings with wife and candidate Anitha Kumaraswamy, Shivakumar, his brother and Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh, cousin and MLC S Ravi.
The two strong Vokkaliga community families are likely to muster all the resources at their command to save the coalition prestige in a constituency that is a Kumaraswamy bastion.
The two families have made efforts to blunt the acrimony between Congress and JD(S) workers, with both parties distancing rebelling local leaders from the core team. They have dispatched Shivakumar loyalist and party MLC C M Lingappa to
Ballari as the campaign committee head (his son L Chandrashekhar is the BJP candidate from Ramanagara), while the Congress has in Ramanagara brought on board with some promises Iqbal Hussain, an aspirant from the constituency.
The BJP, with Chandrashekar as its candidate, appears to be considering the bypoll as a dry run for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The JD(S) has kept a strong hold on its members, considering only Kumaraswamy loyalists for campaigning in the seat.
Dissidents from the Congress, meanwhile, have come out in the open, stating that they had not been invited to campaign in Ramanagara or the adjoining Mandya Lok Sabha seat. Prominent among those who have openly spoken against the coalition fielding Anitha are Magadi ex-MLA H C Balakrishna and Nagamanagala ex-MLA N Cheluvarayaswamy, who left the JD(S) to join the Congress before the May 2018 assembly election.
“None of our leaders have invited us to campaign for the coalition candidates. If they invite us, we’ll campaign. The BJP has been in constant touch with us, but there is no decision on jumping from one party to another. We already took the decision to move from JD(S) to Congress and want to conserve our political capital,” said Balakrishna, hinting at the possibility that he may join the BJP.
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