MYSURU: Apart from deciding the fate of candidates, the elections to the 14 Lok Sabha seats that will go to polls on Friday, will be a battle of prestige for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa and JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy.
The two blocs -- Congress, and BJP and its ally JDS -- are waging a bitter contest in the high-stake battle for Old Mysuru region of Southern Karnataka where a majority of the seats fall.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who swept the region in the assembly elections, wants to corner the maximum number of constituencies, including his hometown Mysuru-Kodagu, Chamarajanagar and also Mandya.
The Congress had won the lone Bengaluru Rural seat but was rooted out in 27 others in the state in the previous LS elections. This time, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have sweated it out for the last couple of weeks to turn the tables on the other two parties and walk away with a good number of seats to prove that they have regained lost ground in the southern districts.
The duo have locked horns with now arch rival Kumaraswamy in Mandya to send a strong message that the Vokkaligas are not with the JDS any more.
With the BJP fielding the scion of erstwhile Mysuru Royal family, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar from Mysuru-Kodagu, winning the constituency has become a matter of prestige for the saffron party and the royal family, whose member is contesting the election after 25 years.
Not taking any chances, Yaduveer has been working on shedding his royal persona to counter the Congress’ “royal family vs comman man” narrative”.
To take on Yaduveer and wrest the seat after a gap of 10 years, Siddaramaiah took a gamble and pitted a Vokkaliga, Congressman and technocrat M Lakshmana, after 47 years.
In Chamarajanagar, Mahadevappa’s reputation is on the line as his son Sunil Bose is taking on S Balaraj of the BJP-JDS combine. The veteran has left no stone unturned out to wrest the seat that was clinched by BJP’s V Srinivasa Prasad in the 2019 election.
The BJP-JDS is also eying the high profile Bengaluru Rural constituency where cardiologist and H D Deve Gowda’s son-in-law C Dr N Manjunath has locked horns with Shivakumar’s brother D K Suresh.
Meanwhile, incumbent JDS MP from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, grandson of Deve Gowda, is looking to retain the seat as it is a stronghold of the JDS family for more than two decades.
So, all eyes will be on Old Mysuru where voters will make the final decision on who makes the cut.