With candidate ready for Channapatna bypoll, Congress leaves door ajar for C P Yogeshwar

Bengaluru: Congress, which is awaiting BJP leader C P Yogeshwar’s next move, has kept its Channapatna bypoll ticket ready for party functionary Raghunandan Ramanna.

Congress sources are not ruling out the possibility of Yogeshwar jumping ship if he fails to secure the BJP ticket. If and when that happens, Yogeshwar will be the Congress’ candidate.

“We are fielding Raghunandan Ramanna, who is a strong candidate. He has worked for the party in the previous polls. Ramanna had a role in Congress going from just 15,000 votes (in the Assembly polls last year) to 85,000 votes (in the recent Lok Sabha polls) at Channapatna,” Congress lawmaker H C Balakrishna, who is involved in his party’s bypoll effort, said. 

Ramanna, who is chairperson of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority, had unsuccessfully contested the 2011 Channapatna bypoll, which Yogeshwar won as the BJP’s candidate.

“We’re not anticipating Yogeshwar to join Congress. Having said that, if a strong leader wants to join our party, we’ll welcome that,” Balakrishna said. This time, if Yogeshwar contests as an independent, Channapatna will face a triangular fight with Congress and JD(S) candidates in the fray. 

“If there’s a triangular fight, Congress will win, maybe with a thin margin. If there’s a straight fight, Congress will win then, too,” Balakrishna said. 

Asked about the possibility of former Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh (Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother) contesting the Channapatna bypoll, Balakrishna said: “Suresh has decided to stay away from elections for the time being. He won’t contest. If he really was contesting, we’d have declared his name already.”