Former CM and JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy has decided to contest from two assembly seats in the upcoming state elections.
This was formally announced by Kumaraswamy during Bikasa Parba Yatre in Channapatna village on Tuesday morning.
JD(S) had already announced its first list of candidates for the assembly polls but did not reveal the seats for any of the members of the first family.
The two seats from where Kumaraswamy will contest in, are Ramanagara (he is currently the MLA from this seat) and Channapatna, in the old Mysore region which is a JD(S) stronghold.
According to sources, the party is deciding to field its tallest leader in two seats as internal surveys show that he will fail to emerge as the winner from Ramanagara.
Kumaraswamy had won this seat by a margin of more than 40,000 votes in 2013.
During the last assembly polls, it was Kumaraswamy's spouse Anita, who had suffered a reversal from here after winning the seat for the party led by former PM HD Devegowda in 2008.
The other reason for fielding Kumaraswamy from Channapatna is the lack of a suitable candidate from JD(S) for this seat.
Sources also claimed that Anita is out of contention for a party ticket since she has not achieved approval ratings in any of the 55 seats in the Old Mysore region of the state.
Other than Kumaraswamy, his brother Revanna is also contesting on a confirmed ticket.
Sources confirm that Kumaraswamy is adamant in not letting more people from the family contest the elections this time around so as to avoid the tag of being a “one family party”.
Last time around in the 2013 polls, JD(S) had come joint second with BJP with 40 seats. The Congress emerged as the single largest party with 121 seats. But since then, a lot has changed. More recently, seven sitting MLAs from JD(S) defected to the Congress.
But political observers have refused to write the obituary of the farmer-centric party. According to some, the party can still play the role of a kingmaker as in the past if both the national parties fail to get a majority on their own.
However, the party which is the only one to have a pre-poll alliance, claims it won’t align with any of the national parties.