Siddaramaiah’s last dance? Cong heavyweight says set to fight ‘last election’; targets BJP, JD(S)

Senior Congress leader and party candidate from Varuna seat Siddaramaiah files his nomination papers ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, in Mysuru district, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (PTI Photo)

“The BJP has not fielded a candidate who was born and brought up here, it has brought a Bengaluru resident, V Somanna, and fielded him here. The BJP and JD(S) have entered into an internal agreement, as a result of which they (JDS) have fielded Bharathi Shankar, the former (BJP) MLA of Narasipura (an erstwhile constituency) to divide the Dalit votes,” Siddaramaiah said.

“They may distribute a lot of money. I have been told that the BJP and JD(S) will spend a lot of money to defeat me. Irrespective of how many crores of rupees they manage to spend, or whatever tricks they try, the people of our region — Varuna — will disregard these overtures and bless me,” he said.

The former CM added, “The BJP is afraid. The entire people of the state are in favour of Siddaramaiah. So they want to defeat me at any cost. I have said that the people of Chamundi (a deity popular in the Mysuru region) are proud and will not fall for any amount of allurement. I was born and brought up in this region. The Varuna hobli (group of villages) is my own hobli. The village where I was born, Siddaramanahundi, is in this constituency.”

Senior Congress leader and party candidate from Varuna seat Siddaramaiah visits Chamundeshwari temple before filing his nomination papers, ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, in Mysuru district, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Despite being a mass leader with support spread across constituencies in Karnataka — primarily from his own sizable Other Backward Class (OBC) Kuruba community, and minorities — the eight-term MLA has struggled in recent times to find a safe seat for himself, where rivalries between Kurubas and communities such as Vokkaligas, tribal Valmikis, and Dalits do not negate his prospects. Siddaramaiah is making a return to the safe seat of Varuna, having abdicated it in favour of his younger son Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah in 2018.

“Since this is going to be my last election, I am contesting it from here. I will retire from electoral politics, though I will remain in politics. The people of the state believe that the Congress must return to power once again. The BJP is a communal party. They have destroyed the state. The economy is in tatters. Programmes meant for the poor have been halted. Corruption is rampant, and 40-50% commissions are demanded as bribes. BJP has to be defeated,” Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday.

“The JD(S) has never won polls on its own. They are waiting for the BJP to get seats, and hoping for a fractured verdict to emerge, resulting in a hung Assembly. Then they will try to go with either the Congress or the BJP. I have specific information, and have felt the pulse of the people, so I’m sure the Congress will return to power,” he said.

During the rally, Siddaramaiah also introduced his 17-year-old college-going grandson Dhawan Rakesh, whose father Rakesh Siddaramaiah had been nurturing the Varuna seat before his untimely death at the age of 46 in 2016, when Siddaramaiah was still the CM.

“This is the last election for me. After that, there is Yathindra and Dhawan Rakesh. He has not completed his studies and needs to complete it. Rakesh is a much-loved person in this region,” he said.

“This seat has elected me on two occasions, in 2008 and 2013. Each time, I won by a margin of over 30,000 votes. The first time you elected me was by over 30,000 votes over police officer Revannasiddaiah [of the BJP]. The second time in 2013, you elected me by 31,000 votes against Kapu Siddalinga Swamy [also of the BJP]. Yathindra was elected by 51,000 votes. This time you must help me win by a margin of one lakh votes,” Siddaramaiah said.

The former CM went on to say that he would only be able to dedicate two days to campaigning in Varuna and that workers and voters must work believing they are working for themselves. “I will not be able to campaign for many days. I’ll be available to campaign only for two days. You have to consider yourselves as the candidate and bring the Congress party to power,” he said.

“In the BJP, there is no honour for senior people. Former CM Jagadish Shettar was not given a ticket, nor was Laxman Savadi. Many people have left the BJP and JD(S) to join the Congress. It’s indicative of the way the wind is blowing,” he added.

Siddaramaiah had decided to return to Varuna to facilitate his travels across the state as a key and star campaigner for the Congress. He initially proposed contesting from Kolar, but the move was vetoed by the Congress leadership on account of the lack of dedicated ground workers for Siddaramaiah in the region and the fear that rivals in other parties might join those within the Congress to defeat him.

In the past, Siddaramaiah has been elected five times from the Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru — in 1983 as an Independent, in 1985 on a Janata Party ticket, in 1994 and 2004 for the Janata Dal, and in 2006 for the Congress, after a narrow 257-vote victory. In 2008, he shifted to Varuna, also in the Mysuru region and having a similar caste matrix as Chamundeshwari (35% Lingayat, 25% OBC, 20% Vokkaliga) and registered an easy victory that he repeated in 2013.

Yathindra was fielded from Varuna in 2018 after Siddaramaiah misjudged his popularity and returned to Chamundeshwari. While Yathindra won Varuna comfortably, Siddaramaiah lost. He had also contested from Badami in north Karnataka where he managed a narrow win.