It’s an uphill task for Somanna, Ashok to take on Siddu, DKS

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru:

The ruling BJP has taken a big gamble by fielding two of its senior leaders against two powerful netas of the Congress Party. Both these candidates, R. Ashok and V.Somanna do not have any roots in the two constituencies. In a bid to check two Chief Ministerial aspirants in the Congress Party, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar, the BJP has fielded Housing Minister V.Somanna and Revenue Minister R.Ashok against Siddu and Shivakumar from Varuna and Kanakapura respectively.

Ashok has been instructed to contest from Padmanabhanagar in Bengaluru City and Kanakapura in Ramanagar district while Somana will fight from Varuna in Mysuru district and Chamarajanagar City constituency respectively. It is an uphill task for the BJP to expect Ashok to defeat Shivakumar who has not tasted defeat in his fortress, Kanakapura from the beginning. Expecting Somanna to trounce Siddaramaiah in Varuna where more than 50 percent of the residents are known to the Congress leader personally, seems to be a far-fetched dream.

Ashok and Somanna have till now confined their areas of operation to Bengaluru City. Somanna is aware of the mood of the people of Chamarajanagar since he has been in charge of this border district for a long time. Some time ago, Somanna had wished to contest from Hanur but that did not happen as the party wanted to field a family member of former minister, H.Nagappa who was kidnapped and killed by forest brigand, Veerapppan.

A senior leader on the condition of anonymity did not agree with the idea of fielding Ashok from Kanakapura to take on Shivakumar, and Somanna from Varuna to face Siddaramaiah.Sources say the state BJPt was surprised when the high command announced its decision to field Ashok and Somanna from the two constituencies. It is not known whether the two BJP candidates even know the number of villages in the two constituencies, the mood of voters, and the caste combination.

Sources say Delhi leaders were under the impression that the incumbent BJP government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had done many things for the Vokkaliga community such as the installation of the 100-plus tall statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda near Bengaluru International Airport as well as recommending a hike in reservation for that community. Similarly Somanna has been given the Varuna ticket to take advantage of the Lingayat votes that may help him counter Siddaramaiah on his home turf. But the saffron leaders seem to have ignored the fact that Siddaramaiah started his political journey by winning from this place forty years ago.

The only advantage Somanna enjoys is that he belongs to the Lingayat/Veerashaiva community. The leader maintained that the Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh model don’t work in Karnataka as the Congress is a strong opposition party and it is giving a tough fight to the saffron party in many seats. In the other two states, the Congress is not in the picture at all with regional parties holding sway