Dual contests: Siddaramaiah banks on Ahinda; HD Kumaraswamy on caste, clout

BENGALURU: Two of the three chief ministerial candidates in Karnataka are contesting from two segments in the 2018 elections.
While chief minister Siddaramaiah is trying to secure his political future by contesting from both Chamundeshwari in Mysuru and Badami in Bagalkot district, JD(S) state president and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy will be contesting from adjoining constituencies of Ramanagara and Channapatna.

A look at the CM's two constituencies, which are 605 km apart, suggests the Congress is banking on Siddaramaiah's popularity among the Kurubas and the Other Backward Castes (OBC) population in Badami. The party is hoping to gain some Lingayat votes in the wake of the minority religion status accorded to the community.

With close to 60% of the 2.1 lakh Badami voters being from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities and OBC community, the Congress is considering it as the best bet for Siddaramaiah to come back to power, even if he loses in Chamundeshwari.


Incumbent Congress MLA BB Chimmankatti, considered a formidable leader, is said to have been taken into confidence by the party despite his initial resistance to part with his constituency.

JD(S) candidate and Lingayat community member Hanumanthappa Mavinamarad is confident that his party's plank of no development and Siddaramaiah deserting his home turf will work against the CM. H Vishwanath, an old warhorse and a Kuruba leader, is expected to divide the OBC votebank in favour of the regional party.

Meanwhile, the BJP is thinking of fielding a formidable candidate and there is a likelihood that it may give the ticket to B Sreeramulu. The party is counting on Sreeramulu's Valmiki Nayaka community and Lingayats, its traditional votebase. In Badami, the Lingayats constitute the second-largest community after the OBCs.

At the other end, Kumaraswamy's decision to contest from Ramanagara and Channapatna appears to be an attempt at safeguarding the party's first-family home turf. Trying to shed the tag of JD(S) being a Deve Gowda family party, Kumaraswamy had dissuaded both his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and nephew Prajwal Revanna from contesting in the 2018 hustings.

In an earlier interaction with TOI, JD(S) Supremo Deve Gowda had said: "... in the process, the JD(S) party workers were antagonised as there is no unity in Channapatna over an alternative candidate to take on CP Yogeshwar. To keep the workers united, Kumaraswamy has decided to contest from two constituencies.'' Both Ramanagara and Channapatna have similar caste combinations, with a majority being from the Vokkaliga, SC/ST and minority communities.