Karnataka elections: Sira Assembly constituency

Sira in Tumkur district. Sira was politically and militarily an important region of south India prior to the British Raj. Sira province was ruled by the Bijapur Kings from 1638 to 1687.The ""Suba"" or Province of Sira of the Mughal Empire with its capital at Sira town lasted from 1687 to 1757. The Marathas wrested the province from Mughals and held it from 1757 to 1759, when the Mughals regained it.

In 1761, Haidar Ali whose father Sheikh Fateh Mohammed occupied an important position in the local Mughal Army declared his independence from the Mughal Empire and declared himself the 'Nawab of Sira'. He called himself 'Nawab Haider Ali Bahadur' but lost the province to the Marathas from 1766 until 1774 when his son Tipu Sultan, captured it for him.

The capital of the province, Sira town, too, prospered most under Dilavar Khan and expanded in size to accommodate 50,000 homes. Palaces and public monuments of Sira became models for other edifices. Both Haidar Ali's palace in Bangalore and Tipu Sultan's in Seringapatam were modelled after Dilawar Khan's palace in Sira.

T.B.Jayachandra, a cabinet minister in the Karnataka government, is the current legislator, he defeated B.Sathyanarayana of JDS.

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