Congress veteran and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah will contest from Varuna constituency in Karnataka and not Kolar, a senior Congress leader in the known confirmed to The Quint. The decision was taken after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a request to this effect on Monday, 20 March.
Gandhi was in Karnataka on Monday, to launch the fourth major election promise of the party.
Earlier, on 18 March, after the Congress Election Committee (CEC) meeting Siddaramaiah had said that his plans to contest from Kolar may not materialise.
Why was Varuna chosen over Kolar?
The Political Calculation
The Varuna constituency is currently a Congress seat held by Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra Siddaramaiah, who had won the seat with a comfortable margin of 45,000 votes.
If Siddaramaiah contests this seat, the win margin will be higher, the Congress is expecting. Moreover, a different political future is being projected for his son.
"Yathindra could get a Lok Sabha poll ticket in 2024, if the Congress wins the Assembly polls," a senior Congress leader told The Quint. Siddaramaiah, if he and the Congress win, will also play a pivotal role in national politics, the leader said.
This would also help the Congress maintain the 'one family, one ticket' rule emphasised in the Udaipur Chintan Shivir.
"He is a senior leader. He is a mass leader who is a good administrator. He will play a more prominent role on the national front when the Congress wins Karnataka," he predicted. Rahul Gandhi is privy to Siddaramaiah's calculations, he vouched.
However, KPCC President DK Shivakumar is one of the top trusted leaders of the Congress in Karnataka, who had earlier played his part to garner MLAs' support for the party in states like Gujarat. In 2017, Shivakumar was instrumental in safeguarding the Congress MLAs who could have been poached by the BJP ahead of a pivotal by-poll in which Congress' Ahmed Patel was contesting.
The Congress also has other calculations in mind when the party leaders suggested Varuna over Kolar for Siddaramaiah.
Congress Suspects BJP-JD(S) Link in Kolar
Siddaramaiah decided to give up his Kolar ambition because the Congress thinks that there is an underhand deal between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) in the constituency.
"It was predicted that the BJP will discreetly offer support to the JD(S) in Kolar to ensure Siddaramaiah's rout. The JD(S) would like to retain the seat and hence they would not mind a tie-up with the BJP," a Congress source explained. Currently, K Srinivasa Gowda of JD(S) is the incumbent MLA in Kolar.
Siddaramaiah, however, had visited Kolar a few times before he decided to make the jump to Varuna. "There was a demand from party leaders and rungs from Kolar that he should contest from the constituency. He was ready to do it, but the party has decided otherwise," a Congress leader said.
For the Congress, which is hopes to ride the anti-incumbency wave against Karnataka CM Basavaraja Bommai, placing Siddaramaiah in Varuna is a better bet.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)