In June 1991, now Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made his Lok Sabha election debut as a Janata Dal candidate from Koppal.
However, losing the election to Congress’ Basavaraj Patil Anwari did not stop Siddaramaiah from putting up a fight. He dragged Anwari to court challenging the election result.
Anwari had secured 2.41 lakh votes against Siddaramaiah’s 2.29 lakh votes. The victory margin was 11,197 votes.
Siddaramaiah alleged that 22,243 votes were wrongly declared as ‘rejected’. He also contended that Anwari, having been disqualified for switching parties after his 1989 win, should not have even contested.
However, Siddaramaiah’s petition was dismissed in 1993. His counsel was senior advocate and former law minister L G Havanur.
(Published 28 March 2024, 12:29 IST)