Bengaluru: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy indicated on Saturday that his son, Nikhil, could contest the coming Lok Sabha poll from Mandya. While he claimed the party had not yet taken any decision on this, he said there was pressure from its rank and file to field him from the constituency.
Speaking to reporters after garlanding the statue of the late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri here, he added, "We will have to wait for the party to decide.'' Although the Chief Minister remained evasive, sources reveal the Janata Dal (S) has already conducted poll surveys in Mandya on the chances of Nikhil winning from the constituency.
Talk of his son contesting from Mandya began soon after Mr Kumaraswamy won the May 2018 state assembly poll from both Ramanagar and Channapatna and gave up the former constituency. While it was first assumed that Nikhil would be fielded from Ramanagar in his place, the seat went to his wife, Anitha instead. This fuelled speculation that Nikhil was more interested in contesting the parliamentary polls than the assembly and could be fielded from Mandya.
Meanwhile , responding to a question on why he had not appointed Chickaballapur Congress MLA, Dr Sudhakar as chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Mr Kumarswamy once again claimed there were technical problems involved.
"I cannot talk about this on the streets. If I did that, it would lower the dignity of the Chief Minister's office. We will take the right decision at the right time,'' he said.
