Bangalore: Setting at rest speculation that a member of the Deve Gowda family —Bhavani Revanna—would contest the parliamentary elections from Mandya, the JD(S) has chosen to field its district president, C S Puttaraju, who was defeated in the last by-election from the seat.
Puttaraju’s candidature was finalised at a meeting of Mandya district leaders in a city hotel Friday evening in the presence of JD(S) supremo, H.D. Deve Gowda and opposition leader, H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Although some Mandya leaders didn’t seem particularly happy with the choice, they were assured that any problems they had with Puttaraju would be sorted out ahead of the polls.
The last byelection from Mandya had exposed the party’s lack of support in the constituency as barring Puttaraju's home constituency of Pandavapura and neighbouring K R Pet, the JDS did not make much headway in any of the other assembly segments. Also, the differences of opinion between Puttaraju and other leaders had come to the fore during the poll.
Although a blue- eyed boy of the Gowda family, the district party president is not particularly popular with others in the area. His strained relationship with former minister, N Cheluvarayaswamy is no secret.
However, to make sure that things go better for the party this time, a member of the Gowda family will coordinate the campaigning along with Cheluvarayaswamy. Also, Deve Gowda himself plans to hold a series of meetings with Mandya JD(S) leaders to encourage them to set aside differences and work as one for the party’s victory in the parliamentary polls.
