BENGALURU: With former CM BS Yediyurappa predicting on Monday that CLP leader Siddaramaiah is unlikely to contest from Kolar assembly seat, but will choose a constituency in Mysuru district for the upcoming assembly polls, there is a fresh debate as to whether the two leaders are in close touch.
He also asserted that Siddaramaiah will be defeated wherever he contests from.
According to sources, the RSS think-tank had planned to pitch Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra against Siddaramaiah if he contested from Varuna, following which the latter changed his strategy. During the 2018 assembly polls, Vijayendra was all set to contest from Varuna and went there to file his nomination papers, but at the last minute was advised by some BJP leaders not to file his papers. This made the contest easy for Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yatindra, who won the seat.
This time, even before the party high command took a call, Yediyurappa had announced that his son Vijayendra would contest from Shikaripura assembly constituency. But the RSS and BJP think-tank still plans to shift him to Varuna and get an ordinary worker elected from Shikaripura. The strategy is to win Shikaripura with Yediyurappa’s image, and use Vijayendra’s organisational skills in Varuna and adjacent seats in Old Mysuru region, as he had helped the BJP win the KR Pete bypoll.
Realising this, Siddaramaiah had opened the option of Kolar, which has a considerable backward classes, minority and Dalit population. “If Amit Shah instructs Vijayendra, the latter has to take up Varuna in the interest of the party, and then Siddaramaiah will stick to Kolar,” a BJP source said. But Siddaramaiah, who has been getting his own survey done of both Varuna and Kolar seats, will eventually choose one of them based on a February survey, according to sources.