Janata Dal (Secular) is looking at the Lok Sabha results with the hope of resurrection with its state president H D Kumaraswamy leading from the front and winning the Mandya seat.
The regional party has won two of the three seats it contested. Kumaraswamy registered a massive victory in Mandya, the Vokkaliga heartland where JD(S) had ceded ground to Congress in the 2023 Legislative Assembly polls.
Kumaraswamy, by winning with a margin of 2,82,704 against the Congress candidate Venkataramane Gowda (Star Chandru), has regained confidence of the party workers as the party had lost six of the seven seats in the Assembly elections. The total votes secured by Kumaraswamy are 8,47,482.
Kumaraswamy’s victory has not just relieved the pain of his son’s defeat from the same constituency in 2019, but also proved its strength in old Mysore region. It has also given a strong message to the ruling Congress that despite having six MLAs, the strength of the party workers of JD(S) and BJP is strong in the region.
Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil had lost to BJP-backed Independent candidate Sumalatha in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when JD(S) was an ally of Congress.
‘Alliance has worked well’
Though there was unrest among the BJP and the JD(S) party workers in other constituencies about the alliance, it has worked well in Mandya even at the local level.
“Kumaraswamy’s winning margin shows that workers and leaders of both parties have accepted the alliance,” JD(S) MLC T A Saravana said.
“There is no doubt that the alliance has worked well. It is a natural alliance and two major communities in the state have accepted it,” Kumaraswamy stated.
By winning Mandya and Kolar seats, the JD(S) has doubled its number in parliament. In 2019, JD(S) had won only one seat, Hassan, and in the changed circumstances, it lost Hassan this time.
‘Not happy’
Reacting to the results in Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, Kumaraswamy said he was not happy with the Hassan results, but refused to discuss it further. Alliance candidate Prajwal Revanna is facing sexual abuse charges and is in SIT custody now.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had held rallies in Mandya and were confident of defeating Kumaraswamy.
Interestingly, Mandya registered a record voter turnout of 81.6% in the election. Congress was confident of winning, banking on guarantee beneficiaries, especially women.
Contribution to BJP’s victory
The party has also contributed for the victory of BJP candidates in Mysore-Kodagu, Chikkaballapur, Tumkur and Bangalore Rural segments.
As explained by Kumaraswamy, fielding Dr C N Manjunath from Bangalore Rural seat was mainly based on the strategy of vote share.
“The alliance helped to win easily in this constituency. If you look at the 2019 results, we supported Congress honestly. Even then, the BJP candidate got six lakh votes. It was a strategy this time and we won. Above all, the Modi wave and hard work of the BJP-JD(S) workers are the reasons for this victory,” Kumaraswamy explained.