Ex-CM visits temple before casting his vote

Mysuru: Opposition leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday exercised his franchise at Siddaramanahundi, his native village, some 23 km away from Mysuru city. He was accompanied by his son and MLA Yathindra Siddaramaiah.
He arrived in the village around 9.30am and spent some time with family members before visiting the polling booth set up at the higher primary school (south wing) to cast his vote.
Prior to voting, Siddaramaiah visited Siddarameshwara temple, his family deity, took blessings and then headed towards the polling booth with a swarm of supporters, relatives and friends. Interestingly, Smitha Rakesh, widow of the Congress leader’s eldest son Rakesh Siddaramaiah, was with Siddaramaiah at Siddaramanahundi and visited the temple and polling booth with him. But as she doesn't have her vote in Siddaramanahundi, she accompanied the former CM till the entrance of the polling centre.
This is Siddaramaiah’s third election from Varuna constituency. He was elected twice in 2008 and 2013 before leaving the constituency for his son Yathindra in 2018.
After casting his vote, Siddaramaiah, Congress candidate from Varuna, claimed Congress will get anywhere between 130 to 150 seats in the assembly polls and he would get more than 60% of polled votes in the Varuna constituency, which has 2.34 lakh voters. In the previous election, the voters’ turnout was 79.2%.
On the occasion, Siddaramaiah attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his visit and rallies won’t have any impact on the election in Karnataka, because the PM didn’t talk about people’s problems or the issues related to Karnataka.
To a query, Siddaramaiah said the Congress high command and newly elected legislators will decide the next chief minister. He also said this is last electoral politics, but would remain active in politics. He said good news awaits Mysuru after May 13.