The Assembly bypolls in Karnataka will see another ‘son rise’ with former chief minister and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil being nominated as the NDA candidate from Channapatna on Thursday to take on the party-hopper and Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar.
Earlier, the BJP announced Bharat Bommai, son of former chief minister and Haveri MP Basavaraj Bommai as their nominee from Shiggaon, a seat vacated by the father. Nikhil will be fighting Yogeshwar to retain the seat that was won by his father in May 2023. Kumaraswamy had defeated Yogeshwar, a fellow Vokkaliga, who had contested on a BJP ticket, by 16,000 votes.
A former minister, who was nominated as the MLC, Yogeshwar chose to quit both the upper house and the party after being denied a BJP ticket to contest the bypolls. The saffron party had advised him to contest as the NDA candidate but on a JDS ticket, as the seat was previously held by the regional party. However, Yogeshwar thought it wise to join Congress party, which was on the hunt for a winning candidate.
The shocking exit of Yogeshwar had left JDS in a turmoil. After series of meetings with party patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda and the BJP leadership, the party announced Nikhil’s candidature.
Nikhil (36), who is an actor and Yuva Janata Dal president, will be trying his luck for the third time in electoral politics. In 2019, when Kumaraswamy was the chief minister, Nikhil made his debut from Mandya Parliament seat, but was defeated by Sumalatha Ambareesh, a veteran actress and wife of late Kannada superstar and former MP Ambareesh by 1.25 lakh votes. In 2023, Nikhil contested the Assembly polls from Ramanagara, a seat previously held by his mother Anitha Kumaraswamy, and lost to Iqbal Hussain of the Congress party.
The Congress hopes that Yogeshwar’s popularity will help the party wrest the seat from the JDS, which holds sway in the Vokkaliga heartland.
The JDS picked Nikhil as the Congress’s strength has only multiplied with Yogeshwar jumping the ship. The JDS might have to rely on the Vokkaliga icon and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda family’s popularity to take on the DK brothers’ clout.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has decided to field Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan (42), who was defeated in the 2023 polls by the incumbent Basavaraj Bommai by 35,000 odd votes. Pathan, president Anjuman-e-Islam Hubballi-Dharwad will be taking on Bharat Bommai (35), an engineering graduate and an entrepreneur will be debuting in the constituency dominated by Lingayat and Minority communities.
In Sandur, the Congress has nominated Ballari MP E Tukaram’s wife Annapurna to contest against BJP’s Bangaru Hanumathu, who is the party’s ST Morcha chief. The bypolls to all three seats will be held on November 13 and the counting will be held on November 23.
