Rahul at Kolar to bring back defamation ghost to haunt Congress

Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi will be in Kolar to address a poll rally ahead of the Karnataka elections to be held on May 10.

Interesting this is the same place where he made the 'Modi surname' remark during the 2019 parliamentary elections, which resulted in his recent conviction.

He is likely to be in Kolar on April 5 to address the election rally.

Kolar has been in the news for other reasons as well. Ahead of the Congress announcing its first list of candidates, former chief minister and senior Congress leader, Siddaramaiah had suggested that he would be contesting from Kolar. However in the first list the Congress announced that Siddaramaiah would contest from Varuna, which will be vacated by his son Yatindra. The suspense around Kolkar is however not over as yet and there are plenty of indications that Siddaramaiah may opt for that constituency as a second seat.

Siddaramaiah said that he had told the high command that he wishes to contest from both Kolar and Varuna.

"It is however up to the high command to take a final call on that," he had says said.

Kolar has been part of all the four delimitation exercises. It has an urban population of over 40 per cent. Since the formation of the state, elections have been held 14 times in Kolar and the Congress has managed to win that seat only 5 times.Since 1983, the party has won the seat only twice. In the 2018 elections, it was the JD(S)' Srinivas Gowda who won this seat defeating the Congress by a 24 per cent margin.

The last time the Congress won from Kolkar was in 20014 and interestingly it was the same Srinivas Gowda who was the candidate for the party.

The battle for Kolkar is important for the Congress. In the 2018 elections, it lost by a 24 per cent margin. In 2013, it ended up third. In the 2008 elections, the party lost by a 16 per cent marginIn 1983, the Janata Parivar won the seat and retained in the 1985 elections too. In the 1989 elections, the Congress won this seat, but in 1994, it was taken by the JD(S).