Epic battle on the cards in Mandya byelections

Mangaloretoday/DHNS

Mandya, Aug 17, 2013: For the people of Mandya, politics is serious business, and for Mandya politicians, it is an ingrained habit of a lifetime.

This could not have been more evident during the run up to the Lok Sabha byelection for the Mandya constituency, where the Congress and JD(S) are seen breaking all conventions, in a desperate bid to outsmart each other.

It is a straight fight between JD(S) candidate and Deve Gowda’s “prodigal son” C S Puttaraju, and Congress candidate and controversy’s child Ramya/Divya Spandana, both Vokkaligas.

 

While Congress struggled to pick a candidate, JD(S) zeroed in on Puttaraju, who was still recovering from his embarrassing defeat during the Assembly elections. Puttaraju had lost to Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha’s (SKP’s) K S Puttannaiah by a margin of 9,848 votes.

Of the eight Assembly constituencies that come under the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, five are held by the JD(S) - Maddur, Nagamangala, Srirangapatna, K R Pet and K R Nagar (Mysore district).

Congress had bagged two seats - Mandya and Malavalli, while Melukote seat was captured by Puttannaiah.

Though the Congress lacks a similar backing, winning the elections has become a prestige issue for the party and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. But choosing a candidate became a headache because of the on-ongoing feud between senior Congress leader S M Krishna and district incharge Minister M H Ambareesh.

But since Ambareesh had his way during the Assembly elections, the party decided to appease Krishna and field a candidate of his choice. Ramya also happens to be the first unmarried-non-widowed woman candidate that any party has fielded in this strongly feudalist belt.

The developments thereon have been nothing short of a potboiler. The death of Ramya’s foster father, her reluctance to contest the elections and the JD(S) trying to cash in on the situation by getting personal created so much havoc that Mandya has never been off the radar in the last couple of weeks.

A new low

When Ramya preferred not to mention her father’s name and caste in the nomination papers, the JD(S) mercilessly attacked her, questioning her lineage and caste. Its MLA M Srinivas wondered if she were a test tube baby.

This, however, backfired for the regional party. There was an immediate backlash by the Congress, while thinkers like Devanur Mahadeva, who had earlier expressed doubts about Ramya’s capabilities, rebuked the JD(S) and called her “Mandya’s daughter”.

Ramya, who could not stop weeping the first two days of her campaigning, has however made a slow recovery, even as all the party leaders, including Siddaramaiah, are seen reaching out to the voters, despite there being major differences amongst themselves.

The young actor, clad in simple cotton sarees, is now trying to strike an emotional chord with the voters. Flanked by her closest friends, Ramya still looks uncertain about her ‘political’ ways.

Pluses-minuses

Her stardom, Congress’s traditional vote base, and the fact that Congress is the ruling party, are factors that may work in her favour. The Congress also benefited when the SKP decided to extend support to it, and when rebel JD(S) leader Krishna and former JD(S) MLA Kalpana Siddaraju joined the party. Ramya’s inexperience and infighting within the party are her biggest minuses.

Some of the factors have gone against the JD(S) too. For JD(S) supremo and his son H D Kumaraswamy, winning the Bangalore Rural seat has become imperative. Since the candidate Anita Kumaraswamy is none other than the wife of Kumaraswamy, the electoral battle has become a family affair.

Plus Anita is fresh out of defeat, making it all the more important for the father-son duo to focus more on that constituency. As a result, they have neglected Mandya to the dismay of the party leaders and workers.

However what’s going in favour of the JD(S) is its ‘unhealthy’ alliance with the BJP and KJP, aside from a huge Vokkaliga vote base.