Congress' Yogeeshwara wins Channapatna Assembly bypoll by defeating Kumaraswamy's son

Congress' C P Yogeeshwara on Saturday won the "high profile" Channapatna segment for the ruling party in Karnataka, defeating JD(S) candidate and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, by a margin of 25,413 votes, in the Assembly by-poll.

Actor-turned-politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's grandson, secured 87,229 votes, while Yogeeshwara, a political heavyweight in the segment got 1,12,642 votes.

A five-time MLA from the segment and a former minister, Yogeeshwara, who is also an actor-turned-politician, had joined the Congress after quitting the BJP ahead of his nomination.

Ahead of joining Congress, Yogeeshwara had appealed to leaders of the BJP-JD(S) alliance to consider giving him a ticket from the saffron party.

There were plans to field Yogeeshwara on a JD(S) ticket, but he was not interested in it, and instead wanted Kumaraswamy to support him as BJP candidate. This was not acceptable to Kumaraswamy and his party, following which Yogeeshwara jumped ship.

However, Kumaraswamy had subsequently said he had agreed to Yogeeshwara contesting from BJP, and despite that he jumped ship to Congress under the influence of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and his brother and former MP D K Suresh.

Following Yogeeshwara joining Congress, the JD(S) which is part of the NDA led by the BJP, fielded 36-year-old Nikhil, from the seat vacated by his father Kumaraswamy, after being elected to Lok Sabha in the elections held in May this year.

BJP and JD(S) leaders including Deve Gowda, B S Yediyurappa had together campaigned for Nikhil in Channapatna.

This is the third electoral defeat for Nikhil.

Nikhil had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Assembly from the neighbouring Ramanagara which had propelled Deve Gowda to the post of chief minister and the seat that was also represented by both his parents.

He earlier had a disastrous electoral debut when he had lost to BJP-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 polls.

For Kumaraswamy, Nikhil's defeat is a setback, as he had represented Channapatna twice.

Kumaraswamy won Channapatna in the 2023 assembly polls, with 96,592 votes against Yogeeshwara (then in BJP) who got 80,677 votes.

Nikhi's mother Anitha Kumaraswamy, a former MLA, had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2013, and faced defeat against Yogeeshwara.

Congress' win in the seat is important for party's state chief D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh to strengthen their position in their home district of Ramanagara, a Vokkaliga heartland.