Bengaluru: Concerned by the challenge posed by Ms Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of the late actor/politician, M.H. Ambareesh, the Janata Dal (Secular) has deployed a battalion of its ministers in Mandya to woo voters of their respective caste and community to ensure the victory of Mr Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Although the Vokkaliga voters, who are in a majority in the constituency, have been traditional voters of the JD(S), this time the Chief Minister seems worried about the division of their votes with Ms Sumalatha too contesting as an independent from the constituency.
Mr Kumaraswamy, who has been spending a great deal of time in the constituency to drum up support for his son, has been holding a series of meetings with his eight MLAs, three MLCs and three ministers from the district to work out strategies to counter the growing popularity of Ms Sumalatha.
All local representatives have been asked to personally contact every gram, taluk and zilla panchayat member of the party and tell them to visit every house in their respective villages to campaign for the JD(S). Energy minister, D K Shivakumar of the Congress too has been requested to contact his friends and relatives in Mandya to support Mr Nikhil, according to party sources.
While the Kuruba, Lingayat, Muslim, Scheduled caste/schedules tribe and Backward Class ministers have been asked to contacted their respective community voters and seek their support for Mr Nikhil, the task of wooing the majority Vokkaliga voters has been personally taken on by the Chief Minister, minor irrigation minister, C S Puttaraju, transport minister, D C Thammanna and tourism minister, Sa Ra Mahesh, sources reveal.
Although cooperation minister, Bandeppa Kashempur is wooing the Kuruba voters, the Chief Minister is reportedly depending on CLP leader, Siddaramaiah to bring in these votes as he is a prominent leader of the community. And minister Venkatrao Nadgouda, a Lingayat leader of North-Karnataka and the Chief Minister’s political secretary, N.H. Konareddy have been tasked with bringing in the Lingayat votes, say sources.
