Mandya (Karnataka) : Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) candidate HD Kumaraswamy won from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. Kumaraswamy contested as the candidate of the JD(S)-BJP alliance and he defeated Congress candidate Venkataramane Gowda by 284620 votes.
Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, polled 851881 votes while Venkataramane Gowda, who stood second, bagged 567261 votes. Incumbent Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh, who won as an independent in the 2019 elections, joined the BJP in March this year but announced she would not contest the 2024 elections.
Congress, aiming to wrest Mandya after a gap of 10 years, picked Venkataramane Gowda popularly known as ‘Star Chandru’, the brother of Independent MLA from Gauribidanur K H Puttaswamy Gowda, who backed the Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls earlier this year. Located between Bengaluru and Mysuru, Mandya is known for the rivalry between Congress and JD(S) to gain the upper hand. The BJP is relatively weak here but has been gaining strength in recent years.
Kumarswamy is currently president of Karnataka State Janata Dal (Secular). He was earlier a member of Lok Sabha and is currently a member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He was the MLA from Channapatna from 2018-23, Ramanagara from 2004 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2018.
The total number of registered voters in this constituency in 2024 polls was 1779243, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 81.67 per cent (1453060 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 2 on April 26, 2024.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Sumalatha Ambareesh won from Mandya as an independent candidate, getting 703,660 votes, comprising 51.02% of the total number of votes polled. Ambareesh defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy by a margin of 1,25,876 votes. In 2014, C.S.Puttaraju had won from this seat, polling 524,370 votes (43.97%) and defeating Ramya of Congress by a slim margin of 5,518 votes.
