Mandya stops for HD Kumaraswamy’s ‘Abhimanyu’ Nikhil Kumaraswamy

Mandya: All roads led to Mandya city on Monday with thousands of people from 'sugar town' and neighbouring districts arriving to support Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) candidate for Mandya who filed his nomination on Monday.

Traffic on the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru national highway was diverted as a precaution to avoid inconvenience to commuters. Hel filed his nomination papers in the presence of his father, mother and Ramanagaram MLA Anitha Kumaraswamy, uncle and PWD Minister H.D. Revanna and energy minister D K Shivakumar at the auspicious time fixed by astrologers. Barring Mr Shivakumar and local Congress leaders like Mr M.S. Atmananda, three disgruntled former legislators, Mr N Cheluvarayaswamy, Mr Ramesh Bandisiddegowda and Mr P.M. Narendraswamy, skipped the rally- sending a clear message that they were not ready to work for the JD(S) candidate.

Addressing the massive gathering, Kumaraswamy compared himself and Shivakumar to a pair of bullocks who are ready to serve the people. Though they had differences prior to the 2018 assembly polls, they are brothers now and Shivakumar has been safeguarding the coalition government for the last one year, he said.

Without naming Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, the CM said some had the habit of blaming him for everything. "People should question them for coming to Mandya to seek your votes. If the city had to progress, it is possible only through the Congress- JD(S) coalition government. The voters of Mandya had always supported the Deve Gowda family and similar love should be showered on my son, Nikhil," he added.

Comparing his son to Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna in the epic Mahabharat who breaks out of the chakravyuha in the crucial Kurukshethra war against the Kauravas, Kumaraswamy exuded confidence that Nikhil would break the chakravyuha set by the BJP, and emerge successful. Shivakumar complimented Nikhil for his leadership qualities at a young age and said he was best suited to be a Lok Sabha member and fight for the people of Mandya. On Sumalatha, he said she was advised to contest from Mysuru, Bengaluru North or Bengaluru South and also offered a nomination to the State Legislative Council.