Mamtha Nichani, daughter of former Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde and Congress candidate from Ramanagara constituency clarified on Wednesday that she was contesting the elections only because senior leaders in the Congress party had asked her to.
She was addressing a press conference after visiting the Siddaganga mutt to see Sri Shivakumara Swamiji and seek his blessings. Mamtha was also confident of a victory in Ramanagar constituency where she is pitted against former Chief Minister Kumarswamy.
Also given the fact that he is the son of Hegde’s old rival Deve Gowda the contest will among the most watched during the state elections.
“The Ramanagar constituency is familiar terrain for me. My father Ramakrishna Hegde has represented the Kanakapura region before and two important hoblis of that region are now part of the Ramanagara constituency. So I enjoy a long family association with the constituency,” she said.
Responding to a question from the media about her competition, she said that any constituency that she would have chosen to contest from would have an opponent and therefore it makes no difference that H D Kumaraswamy is a former Chief Minister.
She said that her father had made it a tradition to visit the Tumkur city and seek the blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swamiji and she was only continuing that tradition.
