Agrarian belt and Vokkaliga heartland Mandya is facing a high-stakes battle as the Janata Dal Secular and the Congress are desperately trying to make amends for bungling five years ago.

Allies then and rivals now, the JDS and the Congress are elbowing each other to win the Lok Sabha seat that they lost to BJP-backed Congress rebel Sumalatha Ambareesh who contested as an Independent.

Now part of the NDA, the JDS as usual insisted on keeping the Mandya ticket to itself and has fielded former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. After weeks of uncertainty, Sumalatha, once a popular actor like her husband, insisted she would contest only from Mandya. She eventually vacated the seat for Kumaraswamy and officially joined
the BJP.

Mandya is one seat that deputy chief minister and state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar wants to win to keep his hopes of becoming chief minister alive. Being the biggest Vokkaliga challenger to the family of JDS supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Shivakumar just can’t afford to lose Mandya.

As a first step, he managed to get the Congress ticket for his loyalist, 59-year-old Venkataramane Gowda, a wealthy contractor better known as “Star” Chandru, with the hope of wresting the seat. Younger brother of Independent MLA and Congress ally K.H. Puttaswamy Gowda, Venkataramane is banking on the fact that he is a son of the soil.

He reminds the voters that it’s a battle for “swabhimana” (self-respect) since Kumaraswamy is an “outsider” born in Hassan and lives in Ramanagara in Bengaluru Rural.

The 64-year-old Kumaraswamy, who underwent his third heart surgery in March — after procedures in 2007 and 2017 — has not exactly hit the road running. Unlike previous elections, his health condition has limited his time spent in campaign.

But the JDS-BJP combine has more than made up for his limited availability by deploying his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy and an army of local leaders to pitch for the former chief minister.

One such leader, former member of the legislative council K.T. Srikante Gowda, told The Telegraph that Mandya was Kumaraswamy’s to lose.

“There is no doubt that Kumaraswamy will win by a huge margin from here. The farmers of Mandya remember the contributions of the Gowda family and how improved irrigation, loan waivers and farm subsidies helped them,” Srikante said.

Incidentally, the Congress committed hara kiri by sidelining Sumalatha to accommodate Nikhil in Mandya. But the contest of rookies was won and lost from the word go since Sumalatha was the widow of local favourite, actor-turned-Congress leader Ambareesh.

As reported by this newspaper in 2019, Sumalatha’s campaign and road shows were a spectacle with supporters from Congress, JDS and BJP carrying their respective flags in pitching for her. She won by 1.25 lakh votes.

But Srikante had little doubt about Kumaraswamy spinning the Vokkaliga magic this time. “Nikhil is drawing huge crowds wherever he goes to campaign for his father. The people of Mandya are with us,” he assured.

His main challenger, Venkataramane, doesn’t seem to be a pushover and is banking heavily on the guarantees implemented by the Congress government in the state and promised nationwide.

Venkataramane Gowda (centre) seen with state minister N Chaluvarayaswamy campaign in Nagamangala taluk in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. Picture courtesy Facebook

“Our guarantees rolled out in Karnataka and promised in our national manifesto have certainly caught the attention of everyone here. Since we walked the talk by implementing the guarantees in Karnataka, the people know they can trust us and hence I am confident of winning,” Vankataramane told reporters during his house visits in K.R. Pet in the constituency.

One of the richest candidates in the country, Venkataramane, who declared assets worth Rs 622 crore, is not leaving a single stone unturned. “The response I get from villages I visit is very encouraging. The people know what the Congress stands for,” he added.

While Shivakumar has predicted that the Congress will win 20 of the 28 seats, against just one in 2019, Venkataramane’s promise to his political boss is to win Mandya.

Mandya votes on April 26