A day after the 75th birthday celebrations of Siddaramaiah in Davangere, KPCC Kisan Cell president Sachin Miga urged the former Chief Minister to contest the next Assembly elections from Chikkamagaluru.
In a video released to the press, Mr. Miga said Chikkamagaluru district hasn’t seen development as the neighbouring districts of Hassan and Shivamogga had witnessed. C.T. Ravi of the BJP represented Chikkamagaluru four times in the Assembly and the district had remained backward compared to its neighbours, he said.
“The MLA has not taken any steps to develop the district. Development is zero under the present MLA,” Mr. Miga claimed while urging Mr. Siddaramaiah to contest from the constituency.
Mr. Ravi is a former Minister and is now national general secretary of the BJP.
The farmers’ leader said Chikkamagaluru constituency had given political rebirth to the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1978 after her defeat in Rae Bareli. She won against the Opposition’s Veerendra Patil of the Janata Party in the byelections to the Lok Sabha seat.
In 2018, Mr. Ravi had challenged Mr. Siddaramaiah to contest against him from Chikkamagaluru.
Mr. Siddaramaiah hails from Mysuru and was elected from Badami in the 2018 Assembly elections.
A few days ago, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that he would not contest from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru. He lost there in 2018 against G.T. Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (S).
A party functionary indicated that Mr. Siddaramaiah would not contest elections from Badami next year. He would contest from either Varuna, presently represented by his son Yathindra, or Chamarajpet in Bengaluru, currently represented by B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, he said.
