Will not contest LS polls, reiterates Siddaramaiah

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said there was pressure on him to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

However, he said he will not run for Parliament.

“There’s pressure from all 28 Lok Sabha seats that I should contest from any one of them,” Siddaramaiah told reporters here. “But I will not contest.”

The party’s leadership considers him “Lok Sabha material,” according to sources in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

Siddaramaiah had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls in 1991 from Koppal constituency that is dominated by the Kuruba community that he belongs to. Then, Siddaramaiah contested as a Janata Dal candidate and lost to Congress’ Basavaraj Patil Anwari.

The former chief minister is said to be reluctant to enter national politics and has maintained that he had no plant to contest Lok Sabha polls. His close followers are learnt to have advised him to continue in state politics, so that he gets another chance to become the chief minister.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah hosted dinner for all Congress ministers at his official residence Cauvery on Tuesday evening.

He is said to have discussed the upcoming state budget. He told ministers that he had asked Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to give priority to promises the Congress had made in its election manifesto. The budget would assume significance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, sources said quoting the former chief minister said.