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Journalism of Courage
The alliance of the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka faces a new problem: deciding on a joint candidate for the upcoming Assembly bypoll in Channapatna where the two parties had been taking on each other for years now.
On Monday, BJP MLC C P Yogeshwara said that he will contest the Channapatna seat as an Independent if the coalition does not field him as a candidate.
A bypoll was necessitated in Channapatna after HD Kumaraswamy, senior JD (S) leader and Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel, vacated the seat following his election as an MP from the Mandya seat in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
“I think that I will contest as an Independent if I do not get the ticket,” Yogeshwara said, adding that he would be part of the NDA coalition if he won as an Independent.
Even though he ruled out joining the Congress, Yogeshwara said he “cannot say what turn politics will take”.
He was speaking to reporters after his return from New Delhi. He was summoned to the national capital on Sunday by the BJP leadership following speculations over his candidature from Channapatna.
Yogeshwara has been a five-time MLA from Channapatna, winning the seat on the tickets of various parties. He had also been a minister in the state.
He had first won the seat as an Independent candidate in 1999. He was a Congress MLA from the seat between 2004-08. By the 2011 Assembly elections, he had switched to the BJP, winning the seat on the party’s ticket. In the 2013 Assembly polls, which were held after the fall of the BJP government led by BS Yediyurappa, Yogeshwara even won the seat from a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket.
He returned to the BJP fold in 2017 but lost the seat in the last two Assembly elections to Kumaraswamy by narrow margins.
Yogeshwara is now staking his claim to the seat, citing his experience. “My argument and claim is that as Kumaraswamy vacated the seat, it should be given to me,” he said, noting that he had lost to Kumaraswamy by a margin between 10,000-15,000 in the last two polls.
He also said he has fully “cooperated” with the BJP-JD(S) alliance and has backed it in the Ramanagara region in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where the JD(S) won two seats. The BJP-JD(S) combine won Bangalore Rural too, where Congress heavyweight DK Suresh was defeated by Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law CN Manjunath on a BJP ticket.
Meanwhile, the JD(S) is said to be keen on fielding Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Channapatana. Nikhil had lost the 2023 Assembly poll from the neighbouring Ramanagara seat.
Over the last couple of months, state Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has gone all out to woo voters in Channapatna. This is being seen as an attempt to ensure a Congress win in the seat. The party had last won it in 2008, when it had fielded Yogeshwara.
While Shivakumar was said to have been thinking of contesting from the seat himself, he has now rejected such a buzz. The Congress has not declared its candidate so far.
Yogeshwara has sought to even underline the differences between the two allies by referring to state BJP general secretary Preetham Gowda, who is among the accused in the alleged sexual abuse case against Prajwal Revanna, former JD(S) Hassan MP, for “leaking” its videos.
Said Yogeshwara: “You have seen the behaviour of one of our leaders at Hassan. Due to this non-cooperation, you are seeing the situation faced by the JD(S) in Hassan.”
