NDA pick & JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy files nomination for Channapatna Assembly bypoll

Bengaluru: JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy on Friday filed his nomination for the November 13 Assembly by-polls from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha, amid a show of strength along with alliance partner BJP.

The actor-turned-politician and NDA nominee was accompanied by wife Revathi, father Kumaraswamy, and BJP leaders -- former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra.

Earlier, the 36-year-old along with family members including his grandfather -- JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda -- visited a temple here.

After offering prayers at Kengal Anjaneya Swamy temple at Channapatna in the neighbouring Ramanagara district later, he held a massive road show accompanied by Kumaraswamy, Leader of Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka (BJP), Sadananda Gowda, Raghavendra, Mysuru BJP MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, along with a host of BJP and JD(S) leaders, for which a large number of party workers and supporters had turned up.

Ahead of filing his papers, the JD(S) youth wing president said fielding him as the candidate was an "unexpected development" for him, but leaders and workers of BJP and JD(S) showed confidence in him and have chosen him.

"The leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the relationship that Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy have developed with the people of the region over the years and the work they have done here will bless me," Nikhil said.

Kumaraswamy said: "This is not Nikhil Kumaraswamy's election. The Congress that is trying to disturb things in the country...when Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister... BJP-JD(S) by winning all the three segments in Karnataka, will put an end to the Congress' politics of conspiracy."

If any development has happened in Channapatna it was during the tenure of BJP and JD(S) in power, the Union Minister said, as he hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar questioning as to what they have done for the constituency "other than making speeches."

Nikhil is pitted against Congress' C P Yogeeshwara, a five-time Channapatna MLA, former Minister and a political heavyweight in the constituency, who switched sides from the BJP on Monday.

Kumaraswamy had won the Channapatna seat in the 2023 Assembly elections polling 96,592 votes against Yogeeshwara (then in BJP), who got 80,677 votes.

Nikhil's mother Anitha Kumaraswamy, a former MLA, had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2013 when she lost to Yogeeshwara.

With Yogeeshwara joining Congress to contest the Channapatna bypoll, pressure was mounting on Kumaraswamy from party workers and leaders to field Nikhil.

It is said that Kumaraswamy was in a dilemma, as Nikhil was not keen on contesting but buckled under pressure from party workers. Nikhil had said he was in favour of the party fielding a local JD(S) worker or a leader as candidate.

This is the third electoral battle for Nikhil. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Assembly from Ramanagara, which had propelled Deve Gowda to the post of Chief Minister, and was also represented by both his parents.

He had a disastrous electoral debut when he lost to BJP-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 polls.