Somanna may contest from Tumakuru

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Tumakuru: Former minister and Veerashaiva-Lingayat leader V Somanna is likely to land the BJP ticket for the Tumakuru Lok Sabha constituency.

He has been on a whistlestop tour of Tumakuru district as of late, meeting religious figures in Kadasiddeshwara Mutt in Nonavinakere near Tiptur, and Gubbi Channabasaveshwara temple.

Recently, Somanna also met Kaginele Kanaka mutt pontiff Eshwaranandapuri Swamy, a Kuruba seer, in an attempt to win over some Other Backward Classes (OBC) voters.

He also made other public appearances in the district in weddings and the like. The BJP leader also visited JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy before the latter went on to meet with the saffron party high command in New Delhi for seat sharing talks.

Somanna also suggested that Kumaraswamy had agreed to his candidature.

“We discussed a number of things and I am humbled by HD Kumaraswamy’s forthcoming attitude,” he said.

He also attended a programme at the Siddaganga Mutt, where Home Minister G Parameshwara and Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna heaped praise on him.

Friction thing of past?

Somanna had been miffed with the decision of the high command to make BY Vijayendra, the son of former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, the BJP state president. Somanna had been an aspirant for the post as well.

Moreover, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had prevailed upon Somanna to abandon his Govindaraj Nagar stronghold in the city and contest from Varuna against eventual CM Siddaramaiah and from Chamarajanagara against Congressman C Puttarangashetty in last May’s Assembly elections.

He went on to lose both seats and blamed Yediyurappa and Vijayendra for sabotaging him.

Somanna had met Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda last month, requesting that he be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. However, Shah suggested that he contest from Tumakuru, assuring him that Yediyurappa and his son won’t sabotage him.

This hasn’t stopped the father-son duo from suggesting former Law Minister JC Madhuswamy’s candidature for Tumakuru.

The incumbent Tumakuru MP is GS Basavaraj. He had famously defeated JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda from the seat in the 2019 general elections by a relatively small margin of more than 13,000 votes.

Basavaraj, who is on good terms with Somanna, is said to be mooting retirement from electoral politics.

Somanna had supported Basavaraj’s bid for Tumakuru last time and the latter is likely to return the favour.

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