Kumaraswamy's son loses in Mandya

In a huge embarrassment to Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, his son Nikhil was defeated by multi-lingual actress and independent candidateSumalatha Ambareesh by 1,25,876 votes in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, that saw a bitterly contested campaign. While Sumalatha got 7,03,660 votes, Nikhil secured 5,77,784 votes, poll officials said here Thursday.

Mandya witnessed a voter turnout of 80.23 per cent, the highest in Karnataka. The Mandya election had catapulted it to the national limelight, with the contest projected as a cliffhanger between Nikhil, who was the candidate of Congress-JD(S) combine, and Sumalatha Ambareesh, who is backed by the BJP.

While Nikhil (31) is the third generation political entrant from former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's family, Sumalatha (55) is the widow of popular actor-turned-politician M H Ambareesh. Sumalatha had initially sought a ticket from Congress, the party from which her late husband had represented Mandya in the past, but it was denied citing coalition compulsions as it had to cede the constituency to JD(S), as per the seat sharing arrangement.

She declared her candidature as an independent, but the move irked Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) leadership, who were once close to Ambareesh, as they gauged that she might be a threat for them in their backyard. All was not well between the alliance partners, as several Congress leaders and workers, miffed over their party's decision to cede the seat to JD(S), did not campaign for Nikhil, upset over certain comments by Kumaraswamy allegedly against them.

Many party leaders and workers had extended support to Sumalatha and had campaigned for her openly with the Congress flag. Mandya Lok Sabha constituency has eight assembly segment and all the seats are represented by the JD(S).

So it was considered as a high stakes battle for Kumaraswamy as his performance here was seen as a mark to gauge the regional party's hold on the dominant Vokkaliga community votes.