JD(S) first family avoids discussion on bypoll debacle

Bengaluru:The JD(S) first family on Sunday avoided speaking about the hat-trick defeat of Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Channapatna assembly bypoll.

Nikhil lost by a margin of 25,413 votes to the Congress candidate C P Yogeeshwara, for which the results were announced on Saturday. Nikhil is the son of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

“I will visit the party office and answer all your queries, but not now,” Deve Gowda told reporters on the sidelines of Sri Ramanuja Vishwa Vijaya Mahotsava in Bengaluru. Union Minister Kumaraswamy too opted not to speak about his son’s defeat.

“There is no point in discussing the Channapatna election results. People have given their verdict and we have to accept it,” the former Karnataka chief minister said.

Nikhil earlier lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Mandya as the JD(S) candidate against the BJP-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh. He also lost the 2023 assembly election from Ramanagara against the Congress candidate H A Iqbal Hussain.