Uphill task for JD(S) in 3 districts

Mysore, May 3 (UNI) The Janata Dal, which had a strong base in Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagara districts with 16 MLAs in the dissolved Assembly, will be struggling to retain its position in next month's assembly elections.

In Mysore district, it had won eight seats out of 11 constituencies, leaving two seats to the BJP and one to Congress. In Mandya district it secured six out of nine seats, leaving one seat to Janata Dal (United) and two to the Congress. In Chamarajanagara district, it won two seats. Later, an independent candidate joined the party, raising the tally to three, leaving one seat each to Congress and Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Nagaraj Party, respectively.

With the defection of top leaders from the Janata Dal(S) party to other parties like, the Congress, BJP and BSP, the party is now trying to rebuild its base from the scratch.

During the 2004 elections, the Janata Dal(S) had a strong leader Siddaramaiah who lead party in this part, to completely dominate the other parties, including the Congress which earlier had a strong base.

But with Mr Siddaramaiah and his supporters like former minister H C Mahadevappa from T Narasipura constituency, K Venkatesh from Periyapatna and former MLAs, M K Somasekhara from Krishnaraja in the city and Manchanahalli Mahadev from K R Nagara, joining the Congress, things have taken a turn for the worse.

Except the Manchanahalli Mahadev, all others were contesting from the same constituences on the Congress ticket. Other Janata Dal (S) ministers like G T Deve Gowda (Hunsur) and D T Jayakumar (Nanjangud), the local workers of the party have also quit the party and joined the BJP and BSP.

Mr G T Deve Gowda is now contesting the Hunsur constituency again on the BJP ticket while D T Jayakumar, who left the party just before the filing of nominations, was contesting from Chamundeswari Assembly Constituency on the BSP ticket.

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