'Will quit electoral politics after this election': Siddaramaiah

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah informed that the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections would be his last venture into active electoral politics. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah filed his nomination for Varuna constituency at taluk panchayat office in Nanjangud of Mysuru district today where he was accompanied former minister H C Mahadevappa and others accompanied him.

Prior to this he visited his native Siddaramanahundi in Varuna constituency in Mysuru district and offered prayers to his family deity at Siddarameshwara temple and also Sri Ramamandira at his village. He later offered pooja at Chamundeshwari temple atop Chamundi hill and also Sri Tripurasundari Devi in Uththanahalli. He held a mega rally amid the cheer by over 20,000 people who were present. He took out a huge road show before he filed nomination.

Siddaramaiah said, "It is my last election. After that Yathindra and Dhavan Rakesh will continue contesting elections. Dhavan is still 17, he has to be 25 to contest election. He will contest the election after completing his education. Your affection for Dhavan indicates the love and affection for late Rakesh."

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"Will win with one lakh lead; Cong will come to power with 150 seats", the senior leader exuded confidence.

Siddaramaiah said, "I have complete confidence that people of Varuna won't fall prey to any amount of money spent by other parties or any conspiracy and they would ensure that he wins with 1 lakh lead. Congress will 100 per cent come to power with 150 seats and it will reduce corruption and give pro people governance."

Addressing people of Varuna constituency in Nanjangud, before filing nomination, he said, "I have clear information, as I understand the pulse of people that there is pro Congress wave in the State. JD(S) cannot come to power on its own. BJP doesn't have respect for senior leaders, hence they did not give tickets for former CM Jagadish Shettar, Lakshman Savadi. So many from BJP and JD(S) have joined Congress. BJP stopped pro people programmes, corruption is on peak. So the people of the State want Congress to be in power again."

He added, "BJP and JD(S) are worried, seeing the amount of love people are showering on me. Hence they want to defeat me. So JD(S) and BJP have entered into an internal alliance to defeat me. Hence BJP has fielded a resident of Bengaluru, V Somanna in Varuna. JD(S) has fielded former TNarsipura MLA Bharathi Shankar in Varuna to split SC/ST votes. I am born in Siddaramanahundi of this constituency and Varuna is my own hobli. People of Varuna have given me 30,000 lead in 2008 assembly election, 31,000 lead in 2013 assembly election and 51,000 lead to Yatindra in 2018 assembly election. No matter how many crores they (other parties) spend, what conspiracies they do, people of Varuna would not consider all that."

He informed that he would campaign for two days and asked people to strengthen Congress and bring it to power.