The News Caravan

Tag: opponent

  • Kumaraswamy up against tough opponent in home base Channapatna

    Kumaraswamy up against tough opponent in home base Channapatna

    [ad_1]

    Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is leading the JD(S) from the front and is countering the campaign blitzkrieg of the Congress and the BJP, is facing stiff competition in Channapatna constituency.

    The constituency is set to witness a close fight between Kumaraswamy and BJP leader C.P. Yogeshwara. Channapatna was represented by Yogeshwara in 1999. Later, he won the seat as a Congress candidate in the 2004 and 2008 assembly elections.

    After joining the BJP during ‘Operation Lotus’, he lost the by-election in 2009 against JD (S) candidate Ashwath M.C. He managed to win back the seat in the 2011 bypoll as a BJP candidate. In 2013, he contested from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and won against Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita Kumaraswamy. He got 80,099 votes while Anita polled 73,635 votes.

    MS Education Academy

    In the 2018 assembly elections Yogeshwara contesting as a BJP candidate, was defeated by Kumaraswamy. Yogeshwara managed to get 66,465 votes and Kumarswamy polled 87,995 votes. Sources said that Kumaraswamy chooses to contest from Channapatna to end the political career of Yogeshwara.

    Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting from the neighbouring Ramnagar constituency.

    Channapatna constituency comprises 31 wards of the city. The constituency has 2,17,606 voters. Muslims comprise 42.96 per cent of the voters and Hindus make up 55.66 per cent.

    The fight has become a close contest with the BJP high command’s decision to focus on the old Mysuru region. Channapatna, which elected Congress candidates, has become a bastion of the JD (S). Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s family has taken it as a matter of prestige to win from here.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have made repeated visits to south Karnataka and appealed to the voters to root out the JD (S), branding it as a party which practices dynastic politics. The party is planning to organize mega rallies and campaigns in the constituency in the coming days.

    The results will tell how deep the saffron party has managed to put down roots in south Karnataka. With polarization of votes on the basis of religion following the hijab crisis and the call to boycott Muslim traders, Muslims are standing firmly with the JD (S). Kumaraswamy will attract a major chunk of Vokkaliga votes.

    The task of Yogeshwara is to polarize all Hindu votes towards the BJP and keep the Vokkaliga votes intact. Knowing well the uphill task, Yogeshwara had started intense campaigning in the constituency a long time back.

    Kumaraswamy is focusing on a state tour and declared that national parties will have to come to his door after the elections. Yogeshwara has proclaimed that he will win against Kumaraswamy.

    [ad_2]
    #Kumaraswamy #tough #opponent #home #base #Channapatna

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Both Cong opponent Mamata & supporter Nitish gave Kejriwal’s unity meet a miss

    Both Cong opponent Mamata & supporter Nitish gave Kejriwal’s unity meet a miss

    [ad_1]

    Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee whose party wants to keep a distance from both BJP and Congress as well as Bihar’s Supremo Nitish Kumar whose party is allied to Congress, seemed to have missed out on a meeting called by their Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal to try form a Third Front ahead of the 2024 general elections.

    The invitation of the Aam Aadmi Party chief for the conclave was sent to some eight chief ministers on February 5, a source in the Bengal government said.

    “She was invited by Kejriwal for a meeting in Delhi on March 18. a similar invitation was sent to seven other CMs for the meeting. However, the meeting obviously did not take place,” the source told PTI.

    The TMC supremo, the source said, is likely to visit the national capital later this month, though as yet no meeting scheduled with Kejriwal.

    Last week her party announced that it would go it alone sans the Congress and the BJP after she met Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata.

    Incidentally, Yadav after meeting Banerjee had echoed the same thinking after the meeting last Friday.

    “In Bengal, we are with Mamata didi (elder sister). Right now, our stand is to maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress. Does Congress have any stake in Uttar Pradesh? We will continue our fight against the BJP,” Yadav had said after the meeting.

    Party senior leader and MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay while dismissing talk of a third front, had held out the possibility of “regional players, including former NDA allies,” coming together in a compact ahead of the 2024 general elections.

    Similarly, though Nitish had met Arvind Kejriwal during his Delhi trip immediately after joining Mahagathbandhan (Grand alliance), as part of his campaign for opposition unity, he has since been shy of being seen on the same page with AAP.

    A case in point is the JD(U) not signing a recent letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, protesting the CBI action against AAP leader Manish Sisodia.

    The JD(U) then appeared to have toed the line taken by Congress, its ally in Bihar.

    Though another Bihar ally, RJD, had signed that letter.

    Though there is no official confirmation of receipt of the Delhi CM’s letter here, so far, analysts believe Nitish Kumar is maintaining his distance from AAP in line with the thinking of its partner, Congress, in the coalition

    [ad_2]
    #Cong #opponent #Mamata #supporter #Nitish #gave #Kejriwals #unity #meet

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )