Nikhil Kumaraswamy learning the ropes the hard way

MANDYA: As

Nikhil Kumaraswamy

’s convoy of vehicles passes Ataguru on Maddur-Huliyurdurga road, the JD(S) candidate’s poll manager spots a group of farmers waiting with a garland and immediately asks the driver to slow down. The group draws Nikhil’s attention to agricultural activity in a field nearby and wonders if he has time to join them.

The farmers have barely finished when Nikhil, dressed in white shirt and dhoti, impulsively alights and wades into a marshy paddy field. He plants a few saplings talking all the while with the farmers and hurries to his next destination, but not before telling the farming community that his party is with them.

As his caravan moves through a multitude of people in Maddur, people surge to shake hands with him. A girl from the crowd makes her way up to him and asks if he said he will marry a girl from Mandya. He smiles at her and hops back into his van. “Did I tell people that? It was (Nagamangala MLA) Suresh anna who said that,” he said breaking into laughter.

Having jumped into the electoral fray — he will contest from Mandya constituency — the actor-politician, has taken his new assignment seriously. He hits the road early in the day, travels the hinterland meeting voters and barely sleeps five hours. Life has changed drastically for the 31-year-old.

Arithmetically, the contest between Nikhil and independent Sumalatha Ambareesh would be stacked in favour of the JD(S) as the regional party holds all eight assembly segments. But divisions within its ally the Congress and BJP support to Sumalatha means Nikhil has to work hard for a win.

Nikhil appears to be relishing the challenge. “I’m on a learning curve and enjoying the love and affection people are showering on me,” he said. “It is a responsibility, which I have embraced.”

He has made JD(S) minister DC Thamanna’s house in KM Doddi in Maddur taluk his home “He wakes up by 6am and leaves for electioneering. He’s back only past 11pm,” Thamanna’s son DT Santosh, said.

At a rally in Yaganahalli, people asked him to climb up on a bullock cart. It was 4pm. Although he was heading for a hotel to have lunch, he obliged them. When a bunch of youths trail him on their mopeds, he cautioned them. “Anna, be careful,” he tells them. Nikhil said: “I didn’t aspire to be a politician, but I was asked to contest and I’m playing the role the party assigned me.”