Mysuru: Even as Varuna Constituency in Chief Minister Siddharamaiah’s home district is all set for an exciting battle, with the ruling Congress likely to field the CM’s son Dr. Yathindra Siddharamaiah and the BJP to field former CM and State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Vijayendra for the May 12 Assembly elections, the seat may witness ‘Son Rise’ in State politics.
With the announcement of poll schedule, BSY’s younger son Vijayendra’s name was doing the rounds to take on Siddu’s younger son Dr. Yathindra in the CM’s home constituency of Varuna, which Siddharamaiah represented for two successive terms (2008 and 2013) before deciding to move to Chamundeshwari Constituency, leaving the Varuna segment to his son.
It may be mentioned here that both Vijayendra and Dr. Yathindra are novice to electoral politics with the latter entering politics after the demise of his elder brother Rakesh Siddharamaiah.
Vijayendra, who is tipped to take on Dr. Yathindra in Varuna, performed special puja at Male Mahadeshwara Swamy Hill temple in Kollegal taluk last evening. He visited the temple again this morning also and offered prayers, before leaving for Mysuru. En route, Vijayendra made a brief stopover at the residence of former Hanur MLA Parimala Nagappa, a keen BJP ticket aspirant from Hanur Constituency and held talks with her for sometime before proceeding towards Mysuru.
Speaking to press persons after performing puja at Chamundeshwari Temple atop the Hill in city, Vijayendra, replying to a query on his possible candidature from Varuna segment on a BJP ticket, said that the Varuna party workers had asked BJP State President B.S. Yeddyurappa and National President Amit Shah to field a strong candidate to take on the Chief Minister’s son Dr. Yathindra Siddharamaiah, who is the most likely candidate of the Congress.
B.Y. Vijayendra visits Chamundi Hill Temple
“Ultimately, it is the BJP top brass which will decide on the party candidate and I will certainly contest from Varuna if the party asks me to,” he said.
Maintaining that he was not visiting Mysuru today as Varuna BJP candidate, he said that he was blessed to have darshan of Goddess Chamundeshwari.
Reiterating that he would not hesitate a minute to contest from Varuna if the BJP top brass asked him to, Vijayendra asserted that Varuna will have a BJP MLA for the first time as the people were fed up with the Congress Government in the State.
When asked to comment on CM Siddharamaiah’s statement that those who do not know the Constituency are talking of winning, Vijayendra said that although the CM is partly right, the party workers knew every household in the Constituency and the overall efforts of the party workers will enable the BJP to defeat the Congress in Varuna.
When asked whether politics was new to him, Vijayendra said although electoral politics was a new experience for him, he has seen the political journey of his father B.S. Yeddyurappa since his (Vijayendra) childhood days.
BJP leaders H.V. Rajeev, Kautilya Raghu, Ka. Pu. Siddalingaswamy, M. Rudresh, Ka.Pu. Siddaveerappa, Manjukumar and others accompanied him.
Vijayendra, along with his wife Prema, elder daughter Maithri, younger daughter Jhansi, father- in-law Shivananda Banakar and mother-in-law Vijayalakshmi, left for Suttur Mutt at the foot of Chamundi Hill and sought the blessings of Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji.
Ater having lunch at Suttur Mutt, Vijayendra left for the residence of senior BJP leader V. Sreenivasa Prasad in Jayalakshmipuram and held talks with the influential Dalit leader.
Vijayendra’s visit to the residence of Sreenivasa Prasad assumes significance as Varuna segment has a significant number of dalit voters.
Vijayendra seen with senior BJP leader V. Sreenivasa Prasad at the latter’s residence in Jayalakshmipuram this afternoon
Earlier in the morning, Vijayendra was accorded a warm welcome by BJP workers near Dodda Aladamara on Mysuru-T. Narasipur road.
The workers received him with a Saffron Peta (headgear), shawl and a garland.
This post was published on April 2, 2018 6:30 pm