Congress Expecting Over 130 Seats: Siddaramaiah Ahead Of Karnataka Polls

Karnataka Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday said that the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections is going to be his last electoral battle and he will retire from politics.

Talking to ANI, Siddaramaiah said, "I am contesting from Varuna assembly constituency as my native village comes under this constituency. This is going to be my last election. I will retire from electoral politics."

Siddaramaiah further added that he will still be in active politics but after this election he won't accept any posts which will be in Delhi.

"I am contesting from Varuna (assembly constituency) as it has been cleared by the party's high command. It's not that I am interested to contest but Kolar people want me to contest from there", he said.

Siddaramaiah said that Congress is expecting more than 130 seats this time.

"We are expecting more than 130 seats this time and Congress Party will come to power with a comfortable majority on its own. People have decided to change the government", he added.

He also slammed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said, "Basavaraj Bommai miserably failed to protect the interest of Kannadigas. He has no business to continue as CM. Modi and Shah are coming to Karnataka to get votes and claim it's a double-engine government but Maharashtra government is blatantly interfering with the freedom of the state."

Siddaramaiah also added that he treats all human beings equally and not based on which community they identify with.

"BJP is a sectarian party. Ours is a secular party. There can't be any disparity among the people of Karnataka. I treat all human beings equally whether they belong to Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or any other community or religion, I treat them all equally", he said.

Siddaramaiah said that there are no differences between him and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar.

"My relationship with DK Shivakumar is cordial. There are no differences between us. Of course, differences exist in democracy but it is not detrimental to the interests of the party", LoP added.

Siddaramaiah also hit out at the state government's decision to ban reservation of Muslims in the state and said "Recategorising (of reservation) is not proper, not constitutional. It is not valid... We've no objection to increasing the reservation of Vokkaliga & Lingayat but why you abolished the reservation of Muslims... It clearly shows vendetta, hate politics."

Congress on Thursday announced its second list of 42 candidates, for the Karnataka assembly elections but no decision has yet been taken on who would contest from Kolar even as Siddaramaiah has expressed a desire to contest from the constituency.

According to sources, the Congress top brass has asked Siddaramaiah to contest from his traditional stronghold of Varuna in the Mysuru district, where his son doctor Yatindra Siddaramaiah won in the 2018 Assembly Elections.

Sources said that earlier, amid disagreementsbetween the party's local leaders in Kolar, the Congress High Command had instructed the 75-year-old former chief minister to drop his plan to contest from the Kolar assembly segment

The Congress has also accommodated candidates who switched to the party from the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular). The party is seeking to wrest power from BJP in the state in the upcoming polls.

Meanwhile, former minister Vinay Kulkarni who has been named by Congress as its candidate from Dharwad constituency will have to campaign remotely since the Supreme Court has barred his entry into the district after the CBI named him in connection with the 2016 murder case of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, Yogeeshgouda Goudar.

Kulkarni has been out on bail on the condition that he will not enter the district nor will do anything to tamper with the evidence in the murder case.

Kulkarni was allegedly involved in connection with the murder of Goudar, on June 15, 2016, after he defeated the rival Congress party candidate in the Zila Panchayat elections.

On Tuesday, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the party will conduct an extensive discussion on candidates for the remaining 100 seats in the State.

The Congress had on March 25 announced its first list of 124 candidates for the polls, which included names of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State Party president DK Shivakumar.

Elections are slated to be held in Karnataka in a single phase on May 10, and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.

Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.

Political parties in the State including the ruling BJP, Congress and ally JD(S) are engaged in a spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption.

Notably, while the opposition Congress and Janata Dal Secular have announced 166 and 93 candidates respectively so far, the ruling BJP is yet to announce its first list of candidates for the 224-seat assembly elections in Karnataka.

The model code of conduct had come into effect after elections were announced in the State.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)