“How have I wronged the people of this state?” former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said, as he broke down while addressing the people of KR Pete in Karnataka’s Mandya district, ahead of the bye-elections slated to be held on December 5. Known to get emotional in public, Kumaraswamy wept while asking the people of Manda, why they ensured his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy’s defeat. Nikhil had lost the Lok Sabha polls to independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh back in May.
“You people from Mandya, who I considered dear to me, left me in the lurch. I did not want my son to contest elections at all. You people insisted and made sure he contested,” Kumaraswamy said, while campaigning for JD(S) candidate BL Devaraju. “I am not crying because of losing power but it is only the expression of the pain I have gone through.”
The KR Pete candidate for BJP is former JD(S) MLA Narayana Gowda, who has been constantly stating in his election campaigns that Kumaraswamy was a terrible administrator and was only concerned about staying in power as the Chief Minister. “Funds were not being released for developmental works in my constituency. Kumaraswamy only wanted to stay in power and not help the people,” Narayana Gowda said during his election campaign last week.
Countering this, Kumaraswamy said that he held the love of the people above everything else. “The post of Chief Minister is nothing for me. I need your love and affection and nothing else,” he said.
Kumaraswamy has gotten emotional in public on several occasions. In 2018, ahead of the Karnataka state Assembly elections, Kumaraswamy had cried while addressing a gathering in Bengaluru. “If you want to see me alive, make me win,” Kumaraswamy had said as he broke down. “I cried because I am a sensitive man, a sentimental person,” Kumaraswamy had told the media after he was made fun of.
Two months after the coalition government was formed, the then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy broke down once again. While addressing an event in Bengaluru, Kumaraswamy had said, “You are standing with bouquets to wish me, as one of your brothers became CM and you all are happy, but I’m not. I know the pain of heading the coalition govt.” In April this year, Kumaraswamy turned teary while addressing an election rally in Mandya ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Kumaraswamy accused the JD(S)' coalition partner Congress, for supporting his son's rival candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, and betraying him.
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