MYSURU: Congress leaders including former ministers who don’t see eye to eye with JD(S) leaders are under pressure ahead of former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s visit to Mandya on Wednesday.
Siddaramaiah, who is currently touring Ballari, has called former ministers N Chaluvarayaswamy and PM Narendra Swamy, former MLA Ramesh Bandisiddegowda and others to join him in the tour of the JD(S) stronghold.
Although KPCC has entrusted the charge of Mandya district to former minister K J George and H C Mahadevappa, their talks with Congress leaders has remained inconclusive as many are not in favour of sharing the dais, or for that matter, going to polls with JD(S).This has left seniors of the grand old party in a fix. Neither can they go against the party high command nor do they want to disturb supporters, rank and file of the party.
They belive that if the coalition government continues in office and enters into seat-sharing agreement, they may lose whatever constituencies they command in old Mysuru.
“We stood rock steady with Siddaramaiah in those difficult times, and joined him in Ahinda rallies. Siddaramaiah is losing popularity among his core voters by going with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy,” a Congress leader said.
Some leaders plan to receive Siddaramaiah but skip meetings which JD(S) leaders will attend.