After Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed his desire to contest the 2018 assembly elections from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru, his friends-turned-foes in both the JD(S) and the BJP are learnt to have put their heads together to come up with a ‘game plan’ to “politically finish” their common arch-rival.
In a politically significant development, former Minister V Srinivas Prasad from the BJP, and former Ministers A H Vishwanath and G T Deve Gowda from the JD(S) in Mysuru recently held a meeting. If sources are to be believed the agenda of the meeting was joining of forces of the Opposition to achieve the “common goal” of defeating Siddaramaiah.
Gowda, who represents Chamundeshwari in the Assembly, has vowed to contest against Siddaramaiah in the 2018 polls and teach him a lesson. Prasad and Vishwanath, who recently fell out with the Chief Minister, are expected to make common cause with Gowda.
In an interview, Gowda said that he was “hopeful” that the BJP, which does not have a strong candidate in the constituency, will take a “politically expedient stand” to defeat Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari.
When the two JD(S) leaders met Prasad at the latter’s residence in Mysuru, Prasad, a senior vice-president of the BJP in Karnataka, had assured to work for the defeat of Siddaramaiah in the elections.
According to sources, Prasad has reportedly promised the JD(S) leaders of supporting them in their fight against Siddaramaiah and his close aide H C Mahadevappa. Sources also said the three leaders were once close associates of Siddaramaiah, but are now bitter political foes.
The possibility of the Opposition joining forces in Chamundeshwari in the coming elections has revived memories of the epic electoral showdown between the Congress and the JD(S) during the by-elections to Chamundeshwari constituency in 2006, when Siddaramaiah sought to retain his seat after quitting JD(S) and joining the Congress.
Siddaramaiah had scraped through in the bypolls with a narrow margin of 257 votes against JD(S) candidate Shivabasappa, while the BJP had stayed away from the electoral fray. But, unlike then, when JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister and B S Yeddyurappa was the Deputy CM, Mr. Siddaramaiah is on the saddle now.
Recently, addressing Congress party workers in Chamundeshwari Siddaramaiah had revealed that he would contest his next assembly elections from Chamundeshwari constituency. "I became a taluk board member in 1978. It was Chamundeshwari which sent me to the Assembly the first time in 1983 as an independent and again in 2006, when I resigned after I was expelled from JD(S). You elected me five times from 1983 to 2006 and if I had lost twice in between, it was not because of you but because of my mistakes and divisions in the Janata Party. In 2008 I had to contest from Varuna because Revansiddaiah who was supposed to contest there, joined BJP. I have become CM today because of you. I want my last election to be from here to make Chamundeshwari a model constituency to repay you,” he said.
Comments
Add new comment