BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seems to be testing the waters before deciding whether to contest from Chamundeswari or Varuna Assembly constituency in elections scheduled to be held in 2018.
While his debut entry into the Legislative Assembly in 1983 and subsequent victories after a split of the erstwhile Janata Party were from Chamundeswari, he moved to Varuna when he quit Janata Dal (S) and contested on a Congress ticket in 2008 and 2013, the second victory helped realize his ambition of occupying the Chief Minister’s position.
During a tour of Mysuru district last week, he surprised everyone when he expressed his desire to contest from Chamundeswari constituency.
Everyone thought that Mr Siddaramaiah was keen to return to Chamundeswari and field his son, Mr Rakesh Siddaramaiah, from Varuna constituency.
On Monday, however, Mr Siddaramaiah ruled out his son’s entry into electoral politics as long he was in politics, thus puzzling local Congress leaders.
Commenting on the development, a senior Congress leader and a former minister told DC that first, the party high command might not give tickets to father and son duo that too from adjacent constituencies.
Secondly, there was always the prospect of him or his son losing in Chamundeswari where Vokkaligas, Lingayats and Nayaks constitute around 70-75 per cent of voters. If Mr Siddaramaiah had been winning in all elections held since 1983, it was because of the support of Vokkaliga voters.
The leader opined that Varuna was the safest constituency for Mr Siddaramaiah because of a large number of voters belonging to Scheduled Castes, minorities, OBCs, and Kuruba community. Besides, a portion of T Narasipur, where SCs hold the key, was merged with Varuna at the time of delimitation of constituencies.
Therefore, Mr Siddaramaiah knows well which card to play and when, and having achieved his ambition of making it to the CM’s post, he could play his cards very well, just as he did recently by tacitly backing the unification of parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar in order to weaken Janata Dal (Secular). Such moves prompted JD(S) patriarch to rule out merger of JD(S) with JD(U) and to call off future alliance for forthcoming polls.
