HDK hopeful of JDS winning RR Nagar, Sira bypolls

BENGALURU: Considering that the JDS drew a blank in all the 15 byelections last year, party loyalists are now worried about the RR Nagar and Sira polls. Their concerns are due to the fact their Sira candidate Ammajamma, wife of late MLA B Sathyanarayana, being hospitalised with Covid-19 and the party not naming a candidate yet in RR Nagar. However, former CM H D Kumaraswamy said these factors will not affect the morale of the party.

Speaking to The New Indian Express on Monday, Kumaraswamy said Ammajamma didn’t have to be on the field. He cited the Gulbarga South poll — when MLA Chandrashekar Patil Revoor passed away, the party fielded Aruna Patil Revoor where it did not even have a base, but won finally. “Similarly now, it doesn’t matter because our workers have started campaigning and as we have a strong base in Sira, we will do well,” he said.

 About the husband of a Zilla Panchayat member shifting to the BJP, Kumaraswamy said, “Kalkere Raju’s exit will not even cost us 2,000 votes. He left when we did not give him a ticket. We have committed voters and good workers in Sira.” In the last election, Sathyanarayana had defeated the Congress candidate.The former CM blamed the Congress and BJP for poaching the JDS leaders and members.

While there is talk that the party may give ticket to Krishna Murthy, a former nominated corporator,  in 
Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Kumaraswamy said they will announce the candidate in the next few days.On the Kerala unrest, he said the former state president C K Nanu was terminated as he was weakening the party from inside and his replacement Mathew Thomas, a former irrigation minister, was doing a good job. “Groupism is threatening the party but we will tide over this issue,’’ he said.