The reasoning behind Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s candidature from Badami has been inconsistent. He came up with a new reason on Wednesday that his decision to contest from Badami was to address the regional imbalance.
In a lengthy Facebook post, he said the decision was in response to complaints that successive governments had ‘ignored’ north Karnataka, given its geographical distance from the state’s capital.
“For many months now, there was pressure on me from leaders of this region and I hadn’t taken that seriously. But I pondered over the reasons they gave that north Karnataka lagged behind in development compared with the south,” he wrote. “My candidature from Badami is an extension of the concern my party has towards resolving the regional imbalance. We belong to Karnataka regardless of which part we are born in. While our government has adopted this message through administration, I want to send this message politically as well by contesting from Badami.”
He even called it an experiment. “If I’m able to bring the hearts of north and south Karnataka together, my Badami experiment will be deemed successful.”
The BJP and the JD(S) have targeted Siddaramaiah claiming repeatedly that he was scared of being defeated in Chamundeshwari. “It’s the love of the people of Badami that brought me here and not the fear of losing in Chamundeshwari,” he wrote.
He cited the examples of how JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, former chief minister S Bangarappa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested polls from two seats. “Were they scared of losing too? Why are these questions being asked in my case?”
