Siddaramaiah to boost Cong's chances in Jamkhandi

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah will camp in the Jamkhandi Assembly constituency (Bagalkot district) to help the party retain the seat in the November 3 bypoll.

Congress’ Siddu Nyamagouda had won Jamkhandi in the May 12 Assembly election. A few weeks later, he died in a road accident. Nyamagouda was a close aide of Siddaramaiah. The party is likely to field Siddu Nayamagouda’s son Anand for the bypoll.

A native of Mysuru, Siddaramaiah now represents the Badami constituency in the same district. In the May 12 polls, Siddaramaiah suffered a huge setback in the Chamundeshwari Assembly segment, but managed a narrow victory in Badami. Among the many reasons Siddaramaiah chose to contest from Badami was to strengthen the party in north Karnataka.

According to sources, the former chief minister will spend at least one week in the constituency after the nomination process is over later this month.

‘Not against religion’

In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah hit out at his detractors for branding him as “anti-Hindu” and blamed this propaganda as the reason for the Congress’ defeat in the Assembly polls.

“I love all religions. I am not against the concept of worship. My wife performs puja everyday. How am I anti-Hindu? They also called me anti-God. But it was I who started Jayantis for Krishna, Kittur Chennamma, Bhageeratha, Narayanaguru, Tipu, Vishwakarma, Devara Dasimayya and others,” he tweeted.