Bengaluru: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday had a breakfast meeting with former Karnataka chief minister and Lingayat leader BS Yediyurappa, triggering speculations of the role the BJP leader would play in the Karnataka Assembly election in May.
Shah reportedly discussed strategies with BSY and sought his opinion on a few important seats.It was Shah who had shunted BSY into near-oblivion a few months ago, but with BJP having major issues ahead of the poll, the Minister has pulled him back to where he always wanted to be. He was later made a member of the BJP’s parliamentary board.
Congress delays release of its first list for Assembly polls
Meanwhile, Shah attended a slew of meetings in the state and inaugurated various developmental programmes. In another development, the Congress had to delay the release of its first list for the Assembly poll due to party leader Siddaramaiah’s indecision on the seat he wants to contest. The first list was to be released on Ugadi day on Thursday. Siddaramaiah himself had said the party would release the first list on Ugadi. But that did not happen as he had not made up his mind on his seat.The party did not want to release a list that would not figure Siddaramaiah’s name since it believes it would send the wrong message. With the Rahul Gandhi disqualification as MP has taken centrestage, the list is likely to be delayed further.
Siddaramaiah is pressuring the high command to allow him to contest from both Kolar and Varuna (Mysuru), which is currently represented by his son Yathindra. However, since each seat would count in the May election as the party is in close fight with the BJP, the Congress is not in favour of the two seat concept. Siddaramaiah has kept mum. He wants to safeguard his son’s interests, which is why he wants to contest from two seats. If he contests from Kolar alone and loses, then he will be out of the CM race. If he contests from Varuna alone, his son will have to sacrifice his political career. So, he wants to contest from both seats and vacate Varuna for Yathindra if he wins both seats, sources said.Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah plans to hold a roadshow in Badami, the seat he currently represents. This has triggered speculations he might seek re-election from there.The Congress unit in Badami wants Siddaramaiah to contest from there. But he is not keen because of the distance to Bengaluru.
