Bengaluru: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah will contest from Varuna, Mysuru, in the upcoming Karnataka assembly election, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar said Saturday — ending months of speculation over the seat.
Announcing the first list of 124 Congress candidates for the upcoming election, Shivakumar said that 75-year-old Siddaramaiah, who’s currently an MLA from Badami, had been given the option of either contesting the election from the seat himself or fielding his son, Yathindra, from there while he fought from another seat.
Karnataka’s assembly has 224 seats.
“Ultimately he has agreed to contest in Varuna. Siddaramaiah himself has declared that he wants to contest in Varuna,” Shivakumar said.
Sources from the Karnataka Congress told ThePrint that Siddaramaiah was keen on the Kolar seat, which rebel Janata Dal (Secular) leader Srinivas Gowda held until he joined the Congress last September.
Siddaramiah had given several hints that he could be considering contesting the election from Kolar — a place that’s about 60 km from Bengaluru.
“No one has told me not to contest from there,” the Deccan Herald quoted him as saying to his supporters Tuesday. “They have only told me not to take even 1 per cent risk while deciding on the constituency. They have left the decision to me. They have asked me to be available for campaigning across ahead of the elections.”
Varuna is Siddaramiah’s former assembly seat and is currently held by Yathindra. There were media speculations that contesting from the seat could help boost his chances again.
Shivakumar, however, did not rule out the possibility of the former CM contesting from a second seat.
“This is a question you have to ask my party, the AICC leadership,” Shivakumar said.
Deliberations for the remaining 100 candidates are at various stages. This includes Badami, a seat that Siddaramiah won by a slender margin of 4,000 votes in 2018, and Kolar.
Siddaramiah had contested from both Badami and Chamundeshwari, another one of his old assembly segments, that assembly election but lost the latter to Janata Dal (Secular) G.T.Devegowda.
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Other significant candidates
Among other candidates announced Saturday are former Union minister and seven-time MP K.H. Muniyappa, who will contest from Devanahalli.
The development comes despite reports of general discontent among local Congress workers over his candidature.
The party has also fielded H. Nagesh, a former minister in B.S. Yediyurappa’s cabinet who joined the Congress in January, from Mahadevapura in Bengaluru.
Among other candidates is Shyamnur Shivashankarappa from Davangere south, a 91-year-old Lingayat leader whose support the party seeks to consolidate Lingayat voters.
The party is also fielding U.B. Banakar, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and a Yediyurappa loyalist who joined the Congress in November, from his current assembly segment Hirekerur. He’s likely to face Agriculture Minister B.C. Patil, one of the 17 rebel legislators who toppled the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government to side with Yediyurappa in 2019.
There are also several father-children duos in the Congress list as well as sitting MLAs who will be fielded from their current seats again.
The Congress has decided to field S. Madhu Bangarappa, son of former Karnataka chief minister S. Bangarappa, from Soraba in Shivamogga. The seat is currently held by Kumar Bangarappa, his other son.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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