Siddu will be defeated by his own party leaders: Varthur Prakash

Former minister Varthur Prakash on Monday insisted that he would contest as the BJP’s candidate from the Kolar Assembly constituency against Congress leader Siddaramaiah.

“Siddaramaiah will be defeated by his own party leaders in this constituency. I will win from this seat with the highest margin,” Prakash told DH.

Prakash was Kolar MLA twice winning in 2008 and 2013 as an independent candidate. Once Siddaramaiah’s protege, Prakash joined the BJP in May last year.

Prakash added that Siddaramaiah has made “the biggest blunder of his life” by trusting former speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and his “band of associates”, like MLC Naseer Ahmed.

“Kolar, on paper, might show that this is a Congress constituency, but in reality, it is one of the toughest constituencies for Congress to win. Since 2008, the Congress has never won in this seat, whereas I have won this seat as an independent twice and lost in 2018, but I never left my people in Kolar, whether they handed me victory or defeat, I have stayed back with them, unlike Siddaramaiah,” he said.

Earlier, addressing a press conference in Kolar, Prakash launched a scathing attack on Siddaramaiah stating that he was instrumental in defeating Dalit leaders, like Mallikarjun Kharge, Dr G Parameshwara, V Srinivas Prasad and K H Muniyappa.

“Dalits will not forgive him for ill-treating their leaders. Every time he searches for a safe constituency. He displaces elected and stable Kuruba community leaders. In Badami, at the cost of Chimmanakatti, he won the seat in 2018. Now, he is after me. This time, Kurubas in Kolar will teach him a befitting lesson,” he said.

He also claimed that Siddaramaiah’s candidature in Kolar was “match-fixing” between Ramesh Kumar and KPCC president D K Shivakumar. “If they defeat Siddaramaiah, the route to becoming CM for Shivakumar will be easier and if Shivakumar lands in prison, he can anoint Ramesh Kumar as the CM,” he claimed.