Siddaramaiah’s son vs Simha duel to Sumalatha’s uncertain bid: Karnataka abuzz ahead of LS polls

In the 2018 Assembly polls, doctor-turned-politician Yathindra had won from Varuna, when Siddaramaiah had contested from two constituencies, winning Badami in Bagalkot district and losing from the Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru district.

Two months after the Congress’s victory, in July last year, Yathindra said he was willing to contest the Lok Sabha polls if the Congress high command approved it. Though he has remained tight-lipped about the issue in recent months, the talk about his possible candidature from the Mysuru-Kodagu seat has been fuelled by sitting BJP MP Pratap Simha.

Last week, after Simha’s brother Vikram was arrested for allegedly felling over 126 scheduled trees protected under the Forest Act without permission and smuggling the timber, the BJP MP had alleged that Siddaramaiah was going all out to finish him off politically to facilitate the political growth of his son.

Simha alleged that his brother was arrested as he was “hindering Siddaramaiah’s son’s ambition of becoming an MP”.

Simha was recently in the eye of a storm following the Parliament security breach as the passes for the intruders into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery were issued by him.

Meanwhile, weeks after announcing his retirement from electoral politics, senior BJP leader and former CM D V Sadananda Gowda, 70, has now said that “I am under pressure from many leaders to contest the election”,

hinting that he could be fielded again from his Bangalore North constituency.

Sadananda Gowda’s U-turn came at a time when a section of state BJP leaders have been looking to throw their weight behind a party veteran like him to counter the resurgence of ex-CM B S Yediyurappa in the state party politics.

In the Mandya constituency in the Vokkaliga heartland, Independent MP Sumalatha seems to be staring at an uncertain political future due to the BJP-JD(S) alliance forged for the Lok Sabha polls.

In the 2019 polls, riding on a sympathy wave in the wake of the demise of her husband and Congress leader Ambareesh, Sumalatha had defeated JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, film actor and son of ex-CM H D Kumaraswamy, as an Independent candidate.

Although the JD(S) had an alliance with the Congress in the 2019 polls, a section of local Congress leaders had then backed Sumalatha.

However, things have changed now. While there are reports that Sumalatha has approached the BJP leadership to join the party and contest on its ticket, her candidature remains uncertain as the JD(S) is keen on contesting from Mandya, which is likely to be among the five seats the JD(S) would contest with the BJP expected to fight from the remaining 23 seats in the state.

There are even speculations that Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge may shift from his Gulbarga turf to contest from the Chamarajanagar seat. Some Congress leaders feel that the Chamarajanagar constituency in the old Mysuru region, where the party put up a strong performance in the recent Assembly polls, would be a safe seat for Kharge.

Kharge, a two-time MP from Gulbarga, had lost the seat in the 2019 polls to the BJP’s Umesh Jadhav, following which he was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP.