Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Sunday, said he was not scared of Opposition leaders coming together to defeat him Chamundeshwari constituency in the next Assembly elections, as such electoral experiments had failed earlier.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival at Mysuru airport, Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled the 2006 by-elections to the Assembly from Chamundeshwari constituency when the BJP and JD(S) joined forces to defeat him, but in vain.
“So, however much they try, nothing will happen. I am not scared of their electoral strategies. People’s opinion will not change according to their strategies,” he said, while dismissing the coming togther of former minister Srinivas Prasad of the BJP and former ministers A.H. Vishwanath and G.T. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) to defeat him in Chamundeshwari Assembly segment as futile.
Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled how former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had camped in the constituency for 15 days determined to defeat him, while former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and then Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa campaigned against him. “What was the outcome? I may have won by a small margin, but I won. They were in power then. I was not. The voters of Chamundeshwari stood by me. I will place my trust in them. What Opposition leaders do is not important for me,” he remarked.
Mr. Prasad, Mr. Vishwanath and Mr. Gowda had met twice during the last 10 days. To a question on Mr. Prasad’s statement that he would work to defeat Mr. Siddaramaiah, the latter said that Mr. Prasad, who lost the recent by-polls from Nanjangud, was speaking out of frustration.