Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and (R) details of his two-day Mysuru tour programme.
Mysuru: For the first time, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah avoided interacting with mediapersons at the airport in his hometown of Mysuru on Monday.
It may be noted that Siddaramaiah had been following the custom of interacting with mediapersons on arrival at the Mysuru Airport since his earlier term as Chief Minister (2013-18).
As per Siddaramaiah's ‘Tour programme', issued on November 7 by K Chiranjivi, Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister and Ex-Officio Special Secretary to Government, he was scheduled to leave HAL Airport on a two-day tour of Mysuru by a special flight at 10 am on Monday. He is expected to attend a private family function of former president of Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat S Mahadevaiah at a convention hall at Lalithadripura here, and then chair the progress review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here. The Chief Minister is expected to stay in Mysuru and leave by a special flight from Mysuru Airport by 12 noon on Tuesday.
The Department of Information and Public Relations had arranged a vehicle to ferry mediapersons to the airport at 9.30 am as the Chief Minister was scheduled to arrive at 10.25 am. An invitation in this regard was shared with mediapersons on the WhatsApp group of the department on Sunday.
However, on Monday, Siddaramaiah left the airport without interacting with the media. Usually, he would head from the Airport exit towards a barricade, stationed to place the microphones of television news channels, to respond to reporters' queries, every time he visited Mysuru, either by special flight or helicopter.
Speculation
The rare behaviour of the Chief Minister has added fuel to speculation over a possible change in the leadership or a Cabinet revamp. It may be noted that Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is deemed to succeed Siddaramaiah, is in Delhi on Monday. There is also talk of a 'revolution' and a major shake-up in the Karnataka Congress and State government after the results of the Bihar Assembly elections on November 14.
Siddaramaiah will match the former Chief Minister late D Devraja Urs’ record of serving for the longest term of 2,792 days, about 7.6 years, on January 6, 2026. Besides, senior Congress leaders opine that Siddaramaiah is more ambitious and plans to complete his full second term.