Rahul to take call on Siddaramaiah's second seat

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will take a call on the Kolar Assembly seat from where former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is eyeing to contest as a second seat.

The Congress Election Committee, which held a meeting for nearly 3 hours on Thursday, decided to leave the decision to Rahul Gandhi amid hectic lobbying from leaders opposing Siddaramaiah's candidature.

Rahul, in consultation with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, is expected to take a decision by early next week.

Siddaramaiah has expressed his willingness to fight from Kolar in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls, even after the party fielded him from his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru. However, he said that the decision to field him from Kolar is subject to approval of the party high command.

Notably, Rahul had advised Siddaramaiah not to contest from Kolar after as a party internal survey has predicted a "setback" to the veteran leader from the seat. The Congress leadership had asked Siddaramaiah not to take even 1 per cent risk while deciding on the constituency.

Why Siddu insists on Kolar?

Kolar is beleived to be safe bet for Siddaramaiah as it will consolidate AHINDA votes in his favour and Vokkaliga leaders of the party from the region also may pledge support to him. His supporters have conducted surveys, which says, Kolar being close to Bengaluru city may be easy for him to ensure his presence there often.

However, internal rift in the party's Kolar unit, especially with party veteran andf for Union Minister K.H. Muniyappa sulking, may cause a bit of worry for Siddaramaiah to some extent.

Siddaramaiah had won the Varuna seat in 2008 and 2013. However, he vacated the seat for his son Yathindra in 2018 and contested from Badami seat where he managed to win the seat by over 1,500 votes against BJP's Sri Ramulu in a toughly-contested battle.