Siddaramaiah asserts hold in Mysuru, despite set back in Kolar

M K Somashekar

K Harish Gowda

It is being discussed that Siddaramaiah not getting a ticket to contest from Kolar in the third list of the Congress is a setback him. However, the strongman of the Congress in the Mysuru region has asserted his hold by getting ticket to his loyalists in two segments – Krishnaraja (KR) and Chamaraja (CR) – in Mysuru city.

Congress leaders close to Siddaramaiah said fortunately, there were no choices of KPCC president D K Shivakumar in most of the segments in Mysuru district, including in the city.

Both segments are represented by the BJP - by S A Ramadass and L Nagendra respectively - at present. The BJP is yet to declare its candidate in KR, while it has repeated Nagendra in CR. The Congress ticket is given to former MLA M K Somasekhar in KR, while it is given to K Harish Gowda in CR.

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Harish Gowda was a rebel JD(S) candidate in the 2018 Assembly poll in CR, when former vice-chancellor K S Rangappa was a JD(S) official candidate. The division of the votes between Rangappa and Gowda in the Vokkaliga dominated segment of CR resulted in the victory of Nagendra, a former chairman of Mysuru Urban Development Authority.

The JD(S) has repeated its candidate former corporator KV Mallesh in KR, while it has issued a ticket to H K Ramesh, JD(S) city secretary, in CR. Ramesh is the son of the late MLA H Kempegowda, who was Janata Party MLA from Chamaraja in 1983 and 1985.

Somashekar, a two-term MLA, once JD(S) (2004) and once Congress (2013), was a natural choice for KR. However, he had contenders in N M Naveen Kumar and former corporator M Pradeep Kumar. Naveen is the son of former MUDA chairman K R Mohan Kumar, who joined the BJP along with MP V Srinivas Prasad in 2017. However, Mohan became inactive in politics, while Naveen became active in Congress. Somashekar has lost thrice against incumbent MLA Ramadass. Somashekar is a supporter of Siddaramaiah since his 1980 Lok Sabha poll.

It was almost certain that Harish Gowda would get a ticket as he joined the Congress at the behest of Siddaramaiah after the 2018 Assembly poll. Besides, it is a known fact that former MLA Vasu is usually favoured by former CM M Veerappa Moliy. Somehow Siddaramaiah had an aversion towards Vasu even though Vasu’s term was described as the ‘development era’ of Chamaraja segment.

Besides, Vasu’s son Kaveesh Gowda, secretary of Vidya Vikas group of educational institutions, recently joined the BJP. Now, Kaveesh is the BJP candidate in Chamundeshwari segment. Moily’s efforts to get a ticket for Vasu did not yield results against Siddaramaiah’s wish.