Siddu’s announcement on contesting from Kolar aimed at testing waters?

Former Badami MLA Chimmanakatti had asked Siddaramaiah to vacate Badami so that he could contest

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Is Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah trying to test the waters with his announcemnt that he will contest from Kolar Assembly constituency in the 2023 Assembly polls?

Or is it an attemtp to hoodwink his political opponents and leave them confused on his choice of seat? Fans of Siddaramaiah jumped in joy when he declared that he would contest the coming Assembly polls from Kolar. But there are many in the Congress itself who would like Siddaramaiah to lose from Kolar so that he will be out of the race for the CM ‘s post.

Something similar had happened in the 2013 Assembly polls when then KPCC President Dr. G.Parameshwar lost from Koratagere constituency in Tumakuru district, that too a political novice of the JD(S). With this, he lost the chance of becoming the first dalit CM of Karnataka.

Sources close to Siddaramaiah told News Trail that the former CM has two options. He can contest from two constituencies as he did in 2018, from Badami and Chamundeshwari. In the coming election, he may consider contesting from Badami and Kolar and ask his son, Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah to fight from Varuna constituency in Mysuru district from where he won in the 2018 election.

Siddaramaiah knows well that the people of Badami in Bagalkot district are more reliable than people in other constituencies. A few months ago, people from Badami staged a dharna in front of his house in Bengaluru when he wanted to shift to a constituency somewhere near Bengaluru.

They even started pooling resources to present a chopper to Siddaramaiah so that he could visit the constituency whenever he wanted! Former MLA of Badami B.B.Chimmanakatti had asked Siddaramaiah to vacate Badami so that he could contest from there in the coming election but the electorate are reportedly not interested in the candidature of Chimmanakatti because of the way Siddaramaiah has developed the constituency in the last five years which has not happened in the last fifty years.

The only reason why Siddaramaiah wants to change the constituency is the distance of Badami from Bengaluru but it remains to be seen whether he will do this and take a calculated risk by contesting from elsewhere.