‘Modi wave, Nayak quota row cost Congress dear in Varuna’

Mysuru: With Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah, securing a massive lead of 59,000 votes in Varuna assembly constituency last year and Chamarajanagar Congress candidate R Dhruvanarayan's lead in the same Assembly seat dropping to 9,002 votes in the recent Lok Sabha polls, former chief minister Siddaramaiah who had earlier represented Varuna, held a discussion with party workers on what went wrong this time.

According to Congress sources, the assessment was that Lingayats, Dalits and Nayaks play a decisive role in Varuna.

Most of the 70,000 plus Lingayats chose the BJP due to the Modi wave while the Nayaks too did not back the Congress as they felt justice had not been done to them in the ST reservation policy brought out by the previous Congress government led by Siddaramaiah.

Also between BJP candidate V Srinivasprasad and Congress nominee R Dhruvanarayan, the first choice of Dalits was Srinivasprasad who is considered a strong voice of Dalits in the country. Youth backed Srinivasprasad for his values and clean image and more so because he criticised BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde when he spoke of changing the  Constitution. He also dared to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi when Mr Modi made allegations of corruption against former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

Also certain internal issues went against Siddaramaiah and Yatindra which reduced the Congress tally in Varuna in the Lok Sabha elections, sources said.