Somanna’s candidature worries Siddu; dashes to Mysuru to take stock

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Mysuru: Not ready to take his opponent lightly, Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah landed in Mysuru to hold a secret meeting with a handful of supporters to understand the current situation in Varuna constituency.

After the BJP announced Housing Minister V. Somanna as the candidate against Siddaramaiah in Varuna, the former CM has taken him with all seriousness and has begun holding parleys with his trusted lieutenants to study the impact of the Lingayat candidate on his political fortunes.

In the 2018 Assembly election, Siddaramaiah became overconfident by not putting in enough efforts to win the Chamundeshwari seat and lost to G.T.Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) by 30,000 plus votes. The political journey of Siddaramaiah would have suffered a big blow had he not contested from Badami constituency in Bagalkot district where he won by a wafer-thin majority against the BJP’s B.Sriramulu.

On Wednesday night, Siddaramaiah drove straight to his Dattagalli house where he had an in-camera meeting with a group of supporters to know the changes that had taken place in the last five years. Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah, son of Siddaramaian and the sitting MLA of Varuna has been visiting villages in the constituency to campaign for his father.

Though Siddaramaiah had won from this constituency in the 2013 Assembly polls, he vacated the seat for his son, Dr Yatindra, and opted for Chamundeshwari only to be drubbed by Deve Gowda. The Lingayats/ Veerashaiva voters are in a majority in Varuna and the only solace for him is that there are around 35,000 Kuruba voters, around 10,000 Muslim voters, and 15,000 to 20,000 SC/ST voters on which the Congress Party is banking.

But the BJP is hoping to secure the SC/ST votes after the Bommai Government hiked the reservation for the communities in education and employment. On Wednesday, former Congress MLC G.Raghu Achar who resigned from the primary membership of the party after being denied the Chitradurga seat, has shown interest in contesting from Varuna. It is learnt that he has told former CM H.D.

Kumaraswamy and State JD(S) President C.M. Ibrahim to give the Chitradurga ticket to his wife and the Vauna constituency ticket to him. The JD(S) has to select a strong candidate for Varuna as Abhishek, a candidate announced by the party recently, has gone missing and is out of touch. There are unconfirmed reports that the Congress Party has poached him.