BENGALURU: With the Lok Sabha elections approaching fast, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is determined to win all the seats in the Old Mysuru region.
But it is challenging as the saffron party is not strong enough in the Old Mysuru region, which is the home turf of both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and DCM DK Shivakumar.
To counter Congress’ influence, Shah has overseen the choice of candidates for the entire region, including the replacement of sitting MP Pratap Simha with Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar for the Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha segment and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr CN Manjunath for the Bengaluru Rural constituency.
Upping the fight for Congress in both constituencies has an added advantage for BJP, as Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are tied up campaigning hard there, leaving them less time for other constituencies.
JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy recently said it was Shah’s idea to make Dr Manjunath contest on a BJP ticket. He too decided to contest from Mandya only after Shah settled the differences with the incumbent MP Sumalatha Ambareesh.
Sumalatha’s announcement on Wednesday that she will not contest but join BJP and back Kumaraswamy in the polls revealed BJP’s bigger plan to stamp its authority in the region.
Interestingly, Shah mentioned about the so-called ‘cold war’ between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, saying that one is trying to save his post (Siddaramaiah), while the other is trying to snatch it (Shivakumar).
Apart from the three key seats of Mysuru-Kodagu, Bengaluru Rural, and Mandya, Shah has also taken the Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga and Davanagere seats seriously, where sitting MPs have been replaced with V Somanna, Dr K Sudhakar, Govind Karjol and Gayathri Siddeshwara, respectively. He held the core committee meeting of Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga and Davanagere seats.
