There was a high voltage drama between the Deve Gowda family and the DK Shivakumar family for almost two months in the selection of candidates for the by-elections to be held in the Channapatna assembly seat in Karnataka, but finally there was a contest between the two. great players. These two players are: CP Yogeshwar and Nikhil Kumaraswamy.
Family and party safety
But this was not always the case. BJP’s Yogeshwar, a four-time MLA from Channapatna, who was being considered as an NDA candidate, became the Congress candidate at the last moment, while the Janata Dal (S) claimed that it had no other option, so elected the Union Minister. It was decided to include Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of HD Kumaraswamy, to “save the honor of the party and the family”.
Traveling to Channapatna to feel the pulse of the people and meet Yogeshwar, Nikhil Kumaraswamy and HD The journalist heard from Kumaraswamy after separately entering Kumaraswamy’s motorcade during his campaign and seeking speaking opportunities.
Yogeshwar: “I was serious about contesting the elections with the BJP as an NDA candidate, but Kumaraswamy did not want to support me at all costs. I tried to stay with the BJP till the last moment, but when I realized that Kumaraswamy “just wanted to contest “My son, so I quit the BJP, joined the Congress and became the party’s candidate. I wanted to expose Kumaraswamy’s selfish family politics.”
Nikhil Kumaraswamy: “I told Appaji (Dada Deve Gowda) that I am not interested in contesting the elections and we should field a party worker. He initially agreed, but later when Yogeshwar joined the Congress, I was asked to contest. the elections because there was a lot of pressure from our party workers. This is an unexpected election for me now, but I will contest it.
Kumaraswamy: “We were ready to support Yogeshwar and I told him that he should contest as JD(S) candidate as Channapatna is our seat. But it seems that he had made an ‘agreement’ with the Congress leaders months ago. And he kept everyone in darkness till the end When Yogeshwar left us, we had no choice but to bring Nikhil as a candidate to boost the morale of our party workers.”
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‘Revenge’ policy
18 months after the Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP-JD(S) alliance soundly defeated the ruling Congress party led by Siddaramaiah, the Channapatna bypoll in the Vokkaliga bastion is replete with calls for “revenge” of the Local stalwart Shivakumar.
Shivakumar had to suffer a double “humiliation” in the Lok Sabha elections as his brother DK Suresh had to face defeat from Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law Dr CN Manjunath, who was starting his politics on a BJP ticket. Even Kumaraswamy had registered a landslide victory in Mandya, completely overturning the assembly results of just 11 months ago.
After being elected to the Lok Sabha and becoming a Union Minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet, Kumaraswamy had vacated the Channapatna assembly seat. In the assembly elections to be held in May 2023, Kumaraswamy defeated BJP candidate Yogeshwar by a slim margin of 15,000 votes. A year later, when the BJP formed an alliance with the JD(S) for the Lok Sabha elections, Kumaraswamy and Yogeshwar found themselves in the same boat. However, they remained political rivals and distrusted each other.
Yogeshwar is a former soldier, film actor and resident of Channapatna. His political career has been full of ups and downs for more than three decades. He has been elected to the Assembly first as an independent, twice on the Congress ticket and once each on the Samajwadi Party (Uttar Pradesh’s Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party) and BJP tickets. He has been with BJP for the last six years.
Much before the Election Commission issued the notification for the Channapatna by-election, Yogeshwar met Amit Shah and JP Nadda several times in New Delhi and expressed his desire to contest the elections. Apparently, he did not get any guarantee because BJP leaders thought it would be wiser to leave the post to Kumaraswamy as it was the post he had vacated.
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Kumaraswamy’s dilemma
It seems that Kumaraswamy was interested in reviving his son Nikhil’s faltering political career in Channapatna as he had lost two elections and Nikhil had started talks with local leaders as early as June. But no formal announcement was made as Kumaraswamy could not directly refute Yogeshwar’s claim and also wanted to avoid the accusation of simply promoting “dynastic politics”.
Suspecting that he might be denied NDA candidature, Yogeshwar initiated contacts with Congress leaders and also appeared in some public meetings with Shivakumar. The ‘DK brothers’ were keen to field Yogeshwar because the Congress lacked a strong candidate in Channapatna and Yogeshwar had the ideal credentials to challenge the Gowda family.
This fight between the parties continued till 48 hours before the nomination papers were filed and in this hectic turn of events, Yogeshwar resigned from the BJP and his MLC seat before joining the Congress. While JD(S) organized a grand roadshow in Channapatna to declare Nikhil as its candidate.
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defense of the fort
Local experts believe that Kumaraswamy was not prepared to accommodate Yogeshwar in his stronghold as he was shrewd in getting JD(S) workers on his side for long-term gains. Nikhil will definitely give a tough fight to Yogeshwar and may even win as he now has the support of JD(S) and BJP party workers working for him.
JD(S) insiders say party supremo Deve Gowda took the final decision to field Nikhil because “Gowda has never shied away from any challenge”. Nikhil himself confessed, “Appaji has told me that he will travel to Channapatna from November 4 to achieve my success.” Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda may be 92 years old, but everyone knows that politics still runs in his veins.
(The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.)
(Author: Ramakrishna Upadhyay)
