Congress looks to edge out JD(S) in Old Mysuru

GT Deve Gowda, the JD(S) legislator from Chamundeshwari, has also made his intentions clear to leave the regional outfit, allowing Congress to gain some ground in this region.

Ahead of upcoming the assembly elections and local body polls, Congress is making a move in the old Mysuru region, the heartland of the Vokkaliga community and stronghold of Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S), political analysts said.

According to analysts, Congress sees the polls as a chance to capitalise on the waning influence of the JD(S) and before the BJP can make any big play in the region. (PTI)

According to analysts, Congress sees the polls as a chance to capitalise on the waning influence of the JD(S) and before the BJP can make any big play in the region.

GT Deve Gowda, the JD(S) legislator from Chamundeshwari, has also made his intentions clear to leave the regional outfit, allowing Congress to gain some ground in this region.

“They (Congress) have started now, but the impact of this will be seen in the next few days. The Congress has tried many strategies here but were not so successful in the past,” Jayaprakash Gowda, a Mandya-based political analyst, told HT.

The JD(S) Won 31 out of the 56 seats from this region, including all eight in Mandya district.

Vokkaligas are believed to account for around 14% of the state’s total population and the verdict in these parts in 2018 indicated that the community stood behind the JD(S) whose top brass belong to the same caste group.

On Sunday, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah said Gowda expressed his interest in joining the Congress for the 2023 assembly elections.

“It is true that he (Gowda) has spoken to me. It is also true that he has asked for a ticket for himself and his son. I have told him that I would speak to the high command,” Siddaramaiah said.

Interestingly, Siddaramaiah had lost the Chamundeshwari seat to Deve Gowda, who then became a minister in the alliance government under HD Kumaraswamy in 2018.

The former chief minister also confirmed that in the next year’s elections, he would not contest from the Chamundeshwari. The constituency had saved Siddaramaiah from political oblivion in 2006 when he quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress. He won from Chamundeshwari bypolls with a margin of just 257 votes.

Giving up Chamundeshwari, people aware of the developments said, was to accommodate GT Deve Gowda.

However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, claimed that it is in touch with the legislator.

“He (GT Deve Gowda) has not made any decision yet. He is in touch with our people also,” said a district office bearer of the BJP.

The rivalry of the Congress and JD(S) is intense in the old Mysuru region, which was exacerbated when Siddaramaiah joined the former after a bitter spat with the party supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 2006.

The BJP, too, has cashed in on this rivalry, after some success was seen when it managed to officially back an independent candidate Sumalatha Amarnath or Sumalatha Ambareesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and engineered the rout of Nikhil, then chief minister Kumaraswamy’s son, in his political debut (2019 mentioned).

The party also managed to win the bypolls in KR Pete after then JD(S) MLA KC Narayana Gowda defected to the BJP in 2019, registering the saffron outfit’s first-ever assembly victory in Mandya’s history.

Several political leaders were seen switching sides before the MLC elections in December last year, and others, including chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, have claimed that there will be many more before 2023.

“We are aware of those who want to leave our party, and it was decided over two years ago,” TA Sharavana, a JD(S) leader said.

Those who are expected to leave the JD(S) include GT Deve Gowda, Srinivas Gowda, Gubbi Srinivas and Manohar, among others.

Most of the interested leaders from the old Mysuru region appear to head to Congress, while others are looking at BJP, according to multiple people aware of the developments.

The two-legged padayatra for Mekedatu project by the Congress, too, was seen as a move by its state president DK Shivakumar to mobilise support from the Vokkaliga community, one of the most dominant caste groups in this region and a deciding factor in several constituencies.

This group has consolidated behind Deve Gowda, much like how the Lingayats backed the BJP.