Somanna sweats it out against Siddu

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: After the Congress High Command declined permission to Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah to contest from two Assembly constituencies in the May 10 Assembly polls, the former CM has been forced to fully focus on Varuna constituency to keep his dream of becoming the CM for a second time alive. The BJP, strategically gave the Varuna ticket to Housing Minister and Lingayat leader V. Somanna, considering that there are around 65,000 to 70,000 Lingayat/ Veerashaiva votes there.

Till recently, Siddaramaiah was optimistic about getting the nod from the party high command to contest from two constituencies, Varuna in Mysuru district and Kolar City constituency in Kolar district. He did the same in the 2018 Assembly polls and contested from Chamundeshwari in Mysuru district and Badami in Bagalkot district. While he lost in Chamundeshwari, he won from Badami by a waferthin margin.

Since the 2018 Assembly polls, Siddaramaiah is wary that his detractors would join hands with his political opponents to defeat him. For this reason, he wished to contest from two seats but the high command wanted him to get re-elected from any one constituency of his choice. He was optimistic about the nod from the high command till the second list of candidates was announced.

Once the list was out, Siddaramaiah was disappointed as he was asked to contest only from Varuna. The Kuruba leader then dashed of to Mysuru to renew his old contacts to ensure a victory for himself. The first thing Siddaramaiah did was to visit the Suttur Mutt to seek the blessings of Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji, the most influential Lingayat pontiff in the whole country.

On the day of filing nomination papers, Siddaramaiah visited Chamundi Hill to have darshan of Goddess Chamundeshwari, the presiding deity of Mysuru, Sri Ram Temple in Siddaramaiyanahundi and Sri Nanjundeshwar Temple in Nanjangud. With the big kumkum on his forehead, the former CM in a silk dhoti and kurta, went in a procession to Nanjangud to file his nomination papers.

On the other hand, Somanna who is quite new to Mysuru district, has been getting the feel of the constituency by visiting local BJP leaders to seek their support. He met Ka.Pu. Siddalingaswamy, a person close to former CM, B.S.Yediyurappa, and the BJP candidate in the previous Assembly polls from Varuna, and sought his support.

On day one, Somanna is literally sweating under the scorching Sun visiting every house in the constituency. It was a new experience for him since he had been restricted to Bengaluru City and has not been around rural areas. The BJP leaders from Mysuru district are accompanying Minister Somanna during his visit to the constituency