Congress aims to tap Vokkaliga votes with Kusuma

BENGALURU: The 31-year-old Kusuma H, the Congress candidate from the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly bypoll, is the daughter of JDS leader Hanumantharayappa, a prominent Vokkaliga face in the constituency. A newbie in politics, Kusuma was married to late IAS officer DK Ravi. An engineering graduate, she has done her masters from the University of Massachusetts, US, and was working as an assistant professor at a private engineering college in Bengaluru, when the call came to contest the polls. 

By fielding her, the Congress aims to tap over one lakh Vokkaliga voters, who constitute 25 per cent of the electorate in the constituency, and also 25,000 Muslim voters. In 2018, the then Congress candidate Munirathna polled 1.08 lakh votes, followed by 82,000 by BJP’s Muniraju Gowda and over 60,000 by JDS candidate G H Ramachandra. Munirathna is now with the BJP and political observers say that the fight is between Congress and BJP.