Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been facing a series of misfortunes since the reshuffling of his Cabinet in June 2016. Not, just politically, he is also affected personally.
Immediately after the reshuffling on June 19, Siddaramaiah had to face the outburst of Srinivas Prasad. The latter subsequently quit Congress and joined BJP on January 02, blaming the chief minister. The by-election for the Nanjangud Assembly constituency, earlier held by Prasad, is expected to be held in February.
Meanwhile, Rakesh Siddaramaiah, son of Siddaramaiah, who was seen as the heir apparent of the chief minister died on July 30, during his visit to the Tomorrowland festival in Belgium. Siddaramaiah’s second son Dr Yatindra is being groomed in politics, without much results. It is anticipated that Siddaramaiah would return to his old constituency of Chamundeshwari, leaving the present constituency of Varuna to his son Dr Yatindra in the next Assembly polls.
K Marigowda, a close confidant of the chief minister and also an aspirant for Congress ticket from the Chamundeshwari constituency, went absconding on July 3, after he was accused of intimidating the then Deputy Commissioner C Shikha. Now, he is out on bail. If Dr Yatindra does not keep up to the expectations of his father to contest from Varuna, K Marigowda will be happy to claim Chamundeshwari.
The chief minister’s plan for a truck with JD(S) in the Mysuru mayor’s election failed on December 8. The JD(S)-BJP combine, which is in power in most of the local bodies, including the zilla panchayat, continued the alliance. So, the hopes of the chief minister to make the Congress the ruling party in at least one of the local bodies, failed in his home district.
Following the demonetisation of high-denomination currency notes, officers such as Chikkarayappa and S C Jayachandra, deemed to be the confidantes of the chief minister and Dr H C Mahadevappa respectively, were arrested following IT raids. They are now under the scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate. Dr Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose, who is an accused in an old bribery case related to sand extraction, is on bail. Bose is suspected to be in the list of those involved in hoarding cash, as revealed by the two officers.
Now, with the demise of Cooperation and Sugar Minister H S Mahadev Prasad, who held the Gundlupet Assembly constituency continously since 1994 on various party symbols, a by-election has become inevitable. Prasad and Dr H C Mahadevappa were seen as close to the chief minister.
Prasad was the only Lingayat MLA of the old Mysuru region from the Congress. His son H M Ganesh Prasad, an industrialist, who is also active in politics, would have to be fielded by the Congress in the by-election. But, since the past two elections, C S Niranjan Kumar has been giving tough fight to Mahadev Prasad. In the 2013 election, while Mahadev Prasad had secured 73,723 votes, Niranjan Kumar, on a KJP ticket, had secured 66,048 votes.
In 2008, when Kumar had contested on a BJP ticket, the margin of Prasad’s victory was 2,203. While Prasad had polled 64,824 votes, Kumar had garnered 62,621 votes.
