Mysuru: Now that all speculation about the possibility of him contesting from a second constituency has been set to rest, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had a “told you so” moment in the city on Monday, reminding reporters that he had never said he would contest from Badami in addition to Chamundeshwari.
“I never said I would contest from Badami. Leaders from the constituency merely visited me recently at my home office, Krishna and requested me to contest from there, that’s it. So far in my political carreer I have never contested from two constituencies at a time. And yes I will contest from only Chamundeswari constituency and file my nomination from there on April 20,” he said, speaking to reporters on arrival at the Mysuru airport to continue his campaign in Chamundeswari and join his son, Dr S Yathindra’s campaign in Varuna for five days.
The Chief Minister said the party had given up Melkote for Darshan Puttannaiah, son of late farmers’ leader, K S Puttannaiah, who is being fielded by the Swaraj India party and would release the list of candidates for the remaining five constituencies, including C V Ramannagar, shortly. “I will campaign in other constituencies too as I am in Mysuru now,” he added.
Responding to state JD(S) chief, H D Kumaraswamy’s statement that he could win without campaigning in Ramanagara even if Mr Siddaramaiah campaigned there for a month against him, the Chief Minister shot back, “Votes are not in his (Kumaraswamy’s) pocket. When he lost against Mr Veerappa Moily in Chikkaballapur in the Lok Sabha elections, where was he and when Ms Anitha Kumaraswamy lost in Channapatna assembly constituency, what was he doing? In a democracy people decide who wins and who loses.”
On Mr Kumaraswamy’s intensive campaign in Chamundeshwari against him, he said, “When he was Chief Minister he campaigned against me in the 2006 by- elections, but what could they do? I still won. This will happen again.”
The Chief Minister revealed that Minister Dr H C Mahadevappa was reluctant to contest the elections, but he had advised him to.
