Various political rivalries, old and new, and a keen tussle between Union Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar are fuelling the bypoll battle for the Channapatna Assembly seat.
Both Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar have also continued to vie with each other for leadership of their Vokkaliga community.
Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, has a lot at stake in the November 13 bypoll, especially after suffering a setback in the Lok Sabha polls as the Congress managed to win only nine of the 28 seats in the state.
In the Channapatna constituency, Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil is taking on Congress candidate C P Yogeshwara, a BJP turncoat. The bypoll was necessitated after its sitting MLA Kumaraswamy vacated the seat after winning from Mandya in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
While Nikhil has suffered successive losses – from Mandya in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and Ramanagara in the 2023 Assembly polls – five-time MLA and former MLC Yogeshwar – who lost the 2023 Assembly polls to Kumaraswamy – fell out with the BJP recently over the ticket denial and joined the Congress to contest the bypoll.
Adding more drama to the battle, JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda campaigned for Nikhil for five consecutive days in Channapatna since Monday despite his age and frail health, even as CM Siddaramaiah also hit the trail to aggressively campaign for the Congress candidate.
Earlier this week, the former PM set the tone for the campaign after he compared his son Kumaraswamy to the Himalayas while terming Shivakumar a “hillock”. “Mountains like the Himalayas cannot be compared to hillocks,” he said at a news conference.
Deve Gowda has focused on the rural areas of the constituency, seen to be dominated by the Vokkaliga community, a core voter base of the JD(S).
The former PM has also made emotional appeal to the voters, highlighting his contributions to irrigation in the region. In an apparent response to the Congress’s charge that the JD(S) failed to implement the Mekedatu project despite being a constituent of the ruling NDA, Deve Gowda said: “The relationship between me and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very good. I do not want anything personally. I have built Hemavathy, Harangi and Kabini (dams). Before I take my last breath, I will ensure that Modi takes the decision (to implement the Mekedatu project).”
Nikhil too is looking to strike an emotional chord with the voters. In the last week of October, the JD(S) nominee broke down and accused the Congress of conspiring twice to ensure his loss.
This incident triggered a response from Siddaramaiah, who at a rally on Thursday asked people not to “trust those who shed tears”. Referring to the alleged sexual harassment case against former MP and Deve Gowda’s grandson Prajwal, the CM said: “Deve Gowda’s grandson sexually harassed someone in Hassan. They (Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy) should have gone there (Hassan) to shed tears but they did not do that. Here you are shedding tears to win the election.”
Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda admitted that emotional appeals do resonate among voters to an extent. “However, Nikhil is not a known name here like Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy. This may work in our favour,” he told The Indian Express.
The Deve Gowda family has also engaged in an intense war of words with the DK brothers – Shivakumar and former MP D K Suresh – with the former PM calling them “land grabbers responsible for the woes of many in the region”.
Shivakumar on Friday hit back and claimed he had donated 25 acres in three places of Kanakapura (his constituency) to establish schools. “Has the Deve Gowda family donated even one gunta?” he asked.
Suresh and Kumaraswamy have released audio clips to target each other. Suresh has released a clip where Kumaraswamy is purportedly heard saying, “Those who work for people lose polls but those who extensively campaign in the last 10 days win.” In response, the Union Minister has played an old clip of the former MP where he is purportedly accusing Yogeshwara of being a “scamster”.
With an electorate of 2.31 lakh, Channapatna is one of the nine Assembly seats falling under the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seat. The NDA is focusing on the rural parts of Channapatna, where a majority of the 1.05 lakh (50%) Vokkaliga voters is concentrated. The Congress is banking on Yogeshwar’s influence among 30,000-35,000 voters as well as the significant presence of Dalits/tribal voters (39,447) and Muslim voters (27, 363) in the constituency.
The Muslim community was said to be one of the key factors behind Kumaraswamy’s win by 16,000 votes in the 2023 Assembly polls as he is said to have garnered around 30% of the community’s vote. The Congress, which was a distant third with just 7.7% of the votes, is banking on the Muslim and Dalit voters to consolidate in its favour this time.
Shahbaz Khan, a vendor in Channapatna town, said that Kumaraswamy’s bid to “blame” Muslims for the JD(S)’s poor show in the state in the 2023 polls led to an erosion of his base among the community.
A senior JD(S) leader at the NDA office in Channapatna town conceded that the electoral outcome of the bypoll could be determined by a slim margin. “Voters from Channapatna town will hold the key. Our campaign in rural areas will ensure a good chunk – around 60-65% – of Vokkaligas would vote for the JD(S),” he said.
A JD(S) supporter in Rampura village, Lava Kumar, summed up the situation. “While the JD(S) has an edge in rural areas, Yogeshwar has influence on 60,000 voters. The larger picture here is about the ‘DK-HDK’ rivalry,” he said.
Union Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy 
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