Nearly half-a-dozen legislators had appealed to Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to contest from constituencies such as Varuna, Chamarajpet, Hebbal, Chamundeshwari, or Koppal. But the reasons for his choice of Kolar for the 2023 Assembly polls, regarded a “safe seat” by some, is still being debated.
One of the reasons for his choice appears to be a compulsion to spend sufficient days during the campaign criss-crossing constituencies across Karnataka to take on the might of the BJP. As a man nursing ambitions of becoming the Chief Minister for a second term, it is not good enough to win his own seat but he should also ensure the party’s victory. Kolar is just 60 km away from Bengaluru and would make this easier, not tying him down to his own constituency.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who earned his popularity by implementing multiple welfare programmes branded as “Bhagya” schemes, is apparently the main campaigner for the party. He is seen as the mass leader across State especially suited to talk about issues of communal polarisation.
Bitter lesson
After experiencing a bitter lesson in 2018, Kolar appears “safe” for Mr. Siddaramaiah. The constituency has a good vote bank of Ahinda (the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits). Kolar has an estimated 60,000 SC/ST voters, about 50,000 voters of each of Kuruba and Muslims communities, who largely benefited during his tenure as Chief Minister. The Vokkaliga community, which is seen as distant with the Congress leader, has nearly 40,000 votes and remains to be seen how it pans out during campaign.
In 2018, K. Srinivas Gowda (JD-S) defeated Syed Zameer Pasha (Congress) by a margin of 44,251 votes. Mr. Gowda, who was expelled from the JD(S), joined the Congress and is now vacating the seat for Mr. Siddaramaiah.
The JD(S) has already announced C.M.R. Srinath, a Vokkaliga, as its Kolar candidate. The BJP proposed to field former Minister R. Varthur Prakash, also a Kuruba. Mr. Prakash won as an Independent in Kolar in 2013 and was Mr. Siddaramaiah’s one-time aide. Now, Mr. Prakash has vowed to defeat Mr. Siddaramaiah. The BJP had bagged just 12,458 votes in 2018, and the party is unlikely to challenge the Congress in 2023 also.
In 2018, as the incumbent Chief Minister, he had contested from both Chamundeshwari and Badami. He lost in the former, but managed to win latter by just 1,696 votes. Sources said Mr. Siddaramaiah considered seeking re-election from Badami “politically risky” as he may not get enough time to spend in other segments. He had an option of returning to Varuna now represented by his son Yathindra, but this would have meant denying the seat to Dr. Yathindra.
Muniyappa factor
However, importantly, he has to contend with the long feud between K.H. Muniyappa, the seven-time MP from Kolar, and MLA and former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar in the new constituency.
Not surprisingly, before heading to Kolar on Monday, Mr. Siddaramaiah visited the residence of Mr. Muniyappa in Bengaluru, hoping to bring about truce. He is hopeful that the appointment of former Minister M.R. Seetharam, loyalist of Mr. Siddaramaiah, as in-charge of the Kolar District Congress, would make things easier.
