KOLAR: Putting speculation to rest, former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday announced that he will contest the upcoming assembly elections from Kolar. “I have decided to contest from Kolar, but the party high command will take the final decision,” he announced at a party workers’ rally here.
In 2018, Siddaramaiah won from Badami in Bagalkot district by a narrow margin, and lost with a big margin of over 36,000 votes in Chamundeshwari, Mysuru. As he was in search of a safe constituency, the names of Kolar and Varuna started doing the rounds. Varuna is held by his son Dr Yathindra.
Siddaramaiah also made it clear that he was interested in contesting only from Kolar, and not from two seats. The 2018 experiment had not worked well for the party. The Congress leader appears to have opted for Kolar, given the voter demographics: around 44,000 voters from the minority community, around 50,000 SC/ST voters, and around 30,000 Kuruba voters. But the challenge is to ensure unity in the faction-ridden district unit. Internal differences that often spill out in the open resulted in veteran leader KH Muniyappa’s defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Even during Siddaramaiah’s visit to Kolar a few days ago, it was former Speaker Ramesh Kumar and his team who made all arrangements, while Muniyappa and his followers had stayed away.
Sensing the need to take everyone along, Siddaramaiah visited Muniyappa, a former Union minister and Congress Working Committee member, at his residence in Bengaluru, before heading to Kolar with him on Monday. It is seen as an effort to take him into confidence and bring various leaders, including Ramesh Kumar, together. Most of the district leaders were on the dais with Siddaramaiah, and assured him they would work for his victory.
The Kolar assembly segment is a bastion of the Congress and JDS, with a bare BJP presence. In 2018, JDS candidate Srinivas Gowda won by a big margin, and recently moved to Congress.
Soon after, Siddaramaiah tried to reach out to voters by stating that he would be available for them every week to solve their grievances. “I have always worked for development and will do the same in Kolar,” he said, adding that people in Badami wanted him to seek re-election, but he had decided against it for logistical reasons. Muniyappa, whose role will be crucial in Siddaramaiah’s election, welcomed the announcement, and said they have to follow the party procedure, and the high command will take the final decision.