A day after the BJP announced the second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and the party brought in some new faces surprising its party leaders, the suspense over the candidate for the Mandya seat continues with the JD(S), the saffron party’s alliance partner, insisting on the seat despite intense lobbying by Sumalatha Ambareesh, MP.
Ms. Sumalatha has expressed several times that the BJP will consider her candidature and she would fight the polls on the party symbol. She had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP National president J.P. Nadda with regard to her electoral fight on the party symbol.
The JD(S) is too confident of getting Mandya under the seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP, as former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is very specific about Mandya. Some JD(S) leaders in Mandya wanted either Mr. Kumaraswamy or his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who was defeated by Ms. Sumalatha in the last election, to contest.
Now that the family members of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda are not keen to contest the Mandya poll despite the followers’ pressure, former Minister and former Melkote MLA C.S. Puttaraju emerged as the consensus candidate for the alliance to take on the Congress which has fielded ‘Star’ Chandru (Venkataramane Gowda). With five out of seven Assembly seats held by it, the Congress is confident of romping home this time and its leaders have already started the campaigning.
Why is the alliance ticket issue taking so much time to decide?
Though speculations are rife in Mandya that the JD(S) has managed to clinch the deal with the BJP, and Mr. Puttaraju is going to be the alliance candidate, the supporters of Ms. Sumalatha are still hoping that their leader will get the ticket with the BJP retaining the seat. However, some local leaders and party workers are not in favour of Ms. Sumalatha’s candidature.
The political circles in Mandya are agog with the perceived development that the ticket issue has been finalised and a formal announcement of Mr. Puttaraju’s candidature remains with the JD(S) managing to clinch the deal with the BJP. Amidst the developments, Mr. Puttaraju and his wife visited the Ayodhya Ram Temple. Former JD(S) MLA D.C. Thammanna’s name was also discussed but Mr. Puttaraja is now a frontrunner for the alliance ticket.
An announcement on the ticket for the Mandya seat was expected either on Friday (March 15) or Saturday (March 16).
