Bengaluru: With just a few days left for the by-election all the parties in the state are reeling under the threat of the rebellions. After BJP, now the JDS has become a divided house. In Mandya, district leaders decided to boycott the by-election campaigning leaving the party top leaders worried. It all started with local JDS leaders led by former district in-charge minister CS Puttaraju, former-minister DC Thammanna and other MLAs recommending the name of HD Manju, a Zilla Panchayat member as the party candidate from the KR Pet constituency. But at the last minute, JDS Supremo HD Deve Gowda allegedly changed the candidate and picked BL Devaraju as the party candidate and to ensure that the leaders fall in line he issued the B-form through his wife Chennamma.
Upset by the party’s decision, all the MLAs and leaders have decided to boycott the party campaign. “Even former CM HD Kumaraswamy is not happy with the party candidate. So former minister HD Revanna will hit the campaign this afternoon. No other leader will join the campaign,” informed a party leader.
Mandya recently became a fight for prestige for the JDS when it fielded former CM Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the recent Parliament polls. Nikhil lost to independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh despite elaborate campaigning. The JDS wants to win as many seats as possible in the by-polls to teach the 17 rebel MLAs a lesson, but its strategies are backfiring as the party decisions are only creating more rebels and troubles.
