Siddaramaiah denied Kolar ticket

BENGALURU: Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's dreams of contesting from dual seats - Varuna in Mysuru and Kolar seat in the ensuing Assembly polls was shattered after the party denied him Kolar seat and announced the candidature of Kothur Manjunath for Kolar Assembly seat.  

In the 2013 election, Kothur Manjunath had won from Mulabagal seat in Kolar as an independent nominee and later joined the Congress party.

Some Congress leaders were against fielding Siddaramaiah from dual seats in the ensuing polls and opposition for Siddaramaiah came from some State leaders and it is said that even president of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Mallikarjuna Kharge was against dual contest.

A couple of months back, the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee D.K. Shivakumar had denied dual seat contests by the leaders of his party in the ensuing polls.

It may be recalled here that Siddaramaiah held a public meeting in Kolar a couple of months back and announced his desire to contest from Kolar but stated that “his candidature in Kolar is subjected to the approval of the high command.”

The Congress party has announced Siddaramaiah as its nominee for Varuna Assembly seat in Mysuru which he had represented in 2008 and 2013 elections. In the 2018 election, Siddaramaiah contested from Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru and also from Badami seat in north Karnataka. While Siddaramaiah won from Badami, he lost the Chamundeshwari seat to JDS nominee and former minister G.T. Devegowda.

In 2023, Siddaramaiah returned to Varuna and his son Dr Yathindra who represented Varuna seat made way for his father to contest the ensuing Assembly polls. Yathindra is campaigning for his father in Varuna seat.

In Varuna seat, Siddaramaiah is against BJP’s V. Somanna, the Minister for Housing. Somanna is contesting from Varuna and Chamarajanagar seat in the ensuing polls and he kickstarted his campaigning in both the seats.

Somanna won from Govindaraja Nagar seat in 2018 and both Varun and Chamarajanagar seats are new turf for the leader. JDS has fielded Abhishek who was defeated in the 2018 elections.