Few Assembly constituencies in Old Mysore region have attracted as much public attention as has Varuna in Mysuru from where former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is facing an electoral challenge from Housing Minister V. Somanna.
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Carved out of parts of Mysuru, T. Narsipur and Nanjangud taluks in 2008, Varuna Assembly constituency has remained the pocket borough of Mr. Siddaramaiah and the Congress. After achieving successive victories during the 2008 and 2013 Assembly elections, Mr. Siddaramaiah vacated the seat in 2018 in favour his son Yathindra, who not only continued the winning streak, but also substantially widened the victory margin.
V.Somanna at Chamundeshwari temple in Mysuru before hitting the campaign trail. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The return
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who suffered a humiliating debacle from neighbouring Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency during 2018 polls at the hands of G.T. Deve Gowda of the JD(S), has returned to comparatively safer electoral turf of Varuna Assembly constituency in the ensuing elections.
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But, the BJP’s decision to field Mr. Somanna, a veteran leader of Lingayat community with proven organisational skills, has queered Mr. Siddaramaiah’s electoral pitch in Varuna that not only has a substantial population of Lingayats, but also houses Suttur Mutt, a prominent Mutt of the community.
Soon after the BJP announced Mr. Somanna as its candidate for the constituency, Mr. Siddaramaiah was quick to label him as an “outsider” while he himself was born and brought up in the constituency. Also, he appealed to the people of the constituency to bless him in the “last election” of his political career that started from the same region more than four decades ago.
Promise of development
The BJP, while rejecting the “outsider” tag, has promised to usher in “Govindarajanagar-like” development in Varuna, referring to the constituency in Bengaluru that Mr. Somanna represented.
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With Mr. Siddaramaiah campaigning for the party in different constituencies of the State, his own campaign in Varuna is led by Mr. Yathindra, who is also the sitting MLA, while Mr. Somanna has also launched an intense high-voltage campaign in the constituency, accompanied by Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and other BJP leaders.
Facing hostile questions
Mr. Somanna’s campaign, however, has been marred by hostile questions posed to him and the accompanying BJP leaders in a few villages, as well as the clashes between BJP and Congress supporters in at least two places including Siddaramanahundi, which is Mr. Siddaramaiah’s native village.
While the BJP’s electoral calculations take the large number of Lingayat votes in the constituency into account, the Congress party campaigners believe that Mr. Siddaramaiah’s support base, cultivated through successive elections, cuts across various communities in the constituency that comprise chunks of Dalits, Kurubas, Nayakas, and Vokkaligas and other traditional Congress voters, besides the Lingayats.
‘Internal understanding’
Meanwhile, the JD(S) this time has opted for N. Bharathi Shankar, a former BJP MLA representing T. Narsipur constituency belonging to the Dalit community, prompting Mr. Siddaramaiah to remark that the JD(S) had joined the BJP again in the elections to defeat him. “The BJP and the JD(S) have an internal understanding,” he said, while accusing the JD(S) of fielding Mr. Bharathi Shankar only to divide Dalit votes.
It remains to be seen if Mr. Siddaramaiah, who made it to the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly after his win from the constituency in 2008 and to the coveted post of Chief Minister after the triumph in 2013 polls, will pull off yet another victory in his “last elections”.