MYSURU: The upcoming Lok Sabha election in the Chamarajanagar constituency is a prestigious battle for all political parties, as the Varuna Assembly segment represented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah falls under this constituency.
Siddaramaiah, who won the 2023 Assembly elections from Varuna, is determined to wrest Chamarajanagar from the BJP. The constituency is represented by BJP’s V Srinivasa Prasad in the current Lok Sabha. Srinivasa Prasad has announced his retirement from electoral politics.
The constituency comprises eight Assembly segments—Varuna, HD Kote, Nanjangud, and T Narasipur (all in Mysuru district), and Hanur, Kollegal, Chamarajanagar, and Gundlupet (all in Chamanarajanagar district).
While Varuna is represented by Siddaramaiah in the Assembly, HC Mahadevappa is MLA from T Narasipur, who also is from the Congress. Both the leaders want to prove their metal in their backyard. Mahadevappa is the social welfare minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.
The 2019 General Elections caused much embarrassment to the Congress after the BJP won the Chamarajanagar seat for the first time. Srinivasa Prasad of the BJP defeated the Grand Old Party’s R Dhruvanarayana by a margin of 1,817 votes.
Despite having seven Congress MLAs from the eight Assembly segments, the Congress has fielded Minister HC Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose.
Though Congress veterans such as B Somashekar, former MP Shivanna, and others lobbied to get the ticket, the party that has embraced dynastic politics in several seats picked Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose, a Youth Congress leader, for the Chamarajanagar seat. Siddaramaiah, knowing that there was no consensus on the candidate, has gone overboard, holding talks with all the legislators and leaders campaigning for two days in support of Bose.
Chamarajanagar has remained a Congress stronghold, with the party winning the seat 10 times since 1962. While the Janata Dal won twice (1996 and 1998), the JDU won in 1999, and the JDS and BJP won once in 2004 and 2019, respectively.
If the Congress is depending on the Dalits, Kurubas, OBCs, Minorities, and Uppara voters to clinch the seat, the BJP has rejected dynastic politics by denying ticket to incumbent MP V Srinivasa Prasad’s son-in-law Mohan Kumar and fielded former Kollegal MLA, S Balaraj, a surprise candidate.
The BJP is keen to retain the seat and is banking on the dominant Lingayat community, and Nayakas, Vokkaligas, and a sizeable Tamil population. It is also working hard to win over the confidence of Dalits.
Balaraj, known for his simplicity, hails from Kollegal, a Dalit-dominant constituency, and is confident of winning if the BJP cuts into 30% of the Dalit votes.
The saffron party leaders are reaching out to the Adivaisis and the Tamil population, particularly the Gounder community, spread across Kollegal, Hanur, and Chamarajanagar taluks.
Balaraj is also approaching former MP R Dhruvanarayana’s followers, who are against the Congress for fielding Mahadevappa’s son. The BJP feels that differences and groupism in the Congress and the BSP candidate would be a blessing for the party in the keenly fought constituency.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which launched Constitution awareness rallies across the region, has accused the BJP of trying to change the Constitution. Congress leaders, including ministers Mahadevappa and K Venkatesh, called on Srinivasa Prasad to support Sunil Bose. The Congress leaders in the district are also aware that many of Srinivasa Prasad’s supporters returned to the Congress fold to send a strong message to Dalits to rally behind the Grand Old Party. The party also inducted former MLA Bharathi Shankar, who had contested against Siddaramaiah in Varuna, and also accommodated several JDS leaders.
The campaign is likely to gain momentum as the BJP is banking on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lingayat strongman and former CM Yediyurappa, and his son and state BJP chief BY Vijayendra. The JDS, on its part, is appealing to the voters to support NDA candidate Balaraj.
