Siddarmaiah cites age factor to shift constituency

BENGALURU: “I am aging and it would be not possible for me to travel quite often to reach Badami Assembly seat to attend to the grievances of the voters,” said Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on his decision to change his Assembly seat from Badami in north Karnataka to Kolar in the south. Siddaramaiah is 75 years old.

Badami is about 350-km from Bengaluru while the Kolar Assembly seat in about 70-km from the State capital and on choosing Kolar he told media persons in Mysuru on Saturday that “Kolar is selected since it is closer to Bengaluru and can do justice to the voters if party came to power in the State.”  

However, Siddaramaiah denied the allegations of opposition parties that he shifted from Badami to Kolar fearing defeat in the forthcoming Assembly election.

“The voters of Badami wanted to me to contest and assured me to get a chopper (to fly frequently from Bengaluru and Badami),” revealed the former Chief Minister and exuded confidence that he would win in Kolar despite campaigning by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah among others.

Recalling his contest in the Badami Assembly seat in the 2018 Assembly poll which he won, Siddaramaiah said, “During the poll in Badami, I visited the constituency twice, once during filing of nominations and once for campaigning. But, BJP spent crores to defeat me. Did they win?”

Adding he said, BJP pitted B. Sreeramulu against me in Badami at the behest of Amit Shah and observed that “The fate of BJP would be the same to that of Badami even in Kolar Assembly seat.”

According to Siddaramaiah, Congress would come back to power in the State in the forthcoming Assembly election by winning about 130 seats.