Siddaramaiah sweated out to ensure bete noire’s defeat

The victory of Congress candidate H P Manjunath, in the bypoll in Hunsur Assembly constituency, is also the victory of ex-chief minister Siddaramaiah.

However, with this lone victory of the Congress among the 15 segments that went to the bypoll, that can be claimed to be due to his clout, it is once again proved that Siddaramaiah’s influence is limited to Mysuru district.

Despite the humiliating defeat in his traditional Chamundeshwari segment in 2018, against his former aide G T Devegowda of the JD(S), he keeps touring only Mysuru district, though he is MLA of Badami in far off Bagalkot district.

Manjunath, who was also elected as MLA in 2008 and 2013, was defeated in 2018 against A H Vishwanath, who was then in JD(S). While Vishwanath crossed over to the BJP, Manjunath faced him again as the Congress candidate and defeated him. Manjunath has been a staunch follower of Siddaramaiah, since the latter joined the Congress. Thus, Manjunath was made political secretary to CM, when Siddaramaiah was CM. However, Manjunath’s father H N Prem Kumar was with the Congress for a long time. He was a Congress candidate in 1983.

As usual, Siddaramaiah concentrated more on Mysuru. As only Hunsur was going to the polls in the district, naturally, his focus was here. He toured every nook and corner of the segment multiple times. He made truce with dissatisfied leaders.

There were chances of the Kuruba community, to which both Siddaramaiah and Vishwanath belong, voting for Vishwanath. Siddaramaiah convinced the community people to vote against the BJP. Even the re-entry of another prominent Kuruba leader C H Vijayashankar into the BJP did not help Vishwanath.

As soon as Siddaramaiah sensed that Vishwanath was gaining an upper hand, with the support of a section of Vokkaligas, he entered into an understanding with JD(S) leaders of the community.

While ex-CM H D Kumaraswamy did not want the victory of Vishwanath, who ditched the JD(S), Chamundeshwari MLA G T Devegowda, who has plans to establish his son G D Harish Gowda in Hunsur segment, also did not want Vishwanath to win.

Devegowda was first elected as MLA from Hunsur in 1998. He was elected again in 2004 and unsuccessfully contested in 2008. His native village Gungral Chatra, under Chamundeshwari constituency, is on the border of Hunsur. He shifted to Chamundeshwari in 2013.