Half Win For Siddaramaiah As He Gets 1 Preferred Seat, Suspense Over Other

Siddaramaiah, one of the key leaders of the Congress in Karnataka who is preparing to contest the assembly election next month from his MLA son Yathindra Siddaramaiah's constituency, Varuna, told NDTV that he is not afraid of losing.

Siddaramaiah, the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, has already announced he will no longer participate in electoral politics after this year's election. Before the Congress's first list showed him as its candidate from Varuna in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah had been hoping to get a ticket from Kolar constituency, a key mining belt.

"The Congress will emerge as the single-largest party," Siddaramaiah told NDTV. "There is no question of a hung assembly," he said.

For now he is busy overseeing the preparations ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Kolar, the same place where Mr Gandhi made a controversial remark on the Modi surname in the run-up to the 2019 general election, leading to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha after conviction in a defamation case recently.

The Karnataka Congress leader chose to contest from Varuna because that's from where he began his political career, and when he decided he wanted to quit electoral politics, he opted for Varuna, his home constituency, for the last time.

Siddaramaiah usually contests from two seats. He had prepared the ground to fight from Kolar for months. In his application to the Karnataka Congress in February, Siddaramaiah had mentioned Badami, Varuna and Kolar as the three constituencies from which he would choose.

Badami and Kolar do not feature in the first list of the Congress, raising eyebrows on the party's game plan, as Siddaramaiah was planning to contest from two seats, like last time. Sources said it's unlikely he would get Kolar, as local reports suggest he might not win from there.

There was also speculation till yesterday that BY Vijayendra, the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa, will fight the election from the seat where Siddaramaiah will contest.

Mr Yediyurappa later put the speculation about his son to rest - Mr Vijayendra will contest from the same seat, Shikaripura, where his father had won seven times since 1983.

The Karnataka assembly election will be held on May 10. Votes will be counted three days later.