The fight for the seat is personal for former Chief Minister Siddarmaiah as Byrathi Basavaraj the BJP candidate was once his close associate.
It’s a fight between old friends-turned-enemies, mentor versus mentee in Bengaluru’s KR Puram Assembly constituency. Congress MLC A Narayanaswamy is up against his former mentor, one of the 17 rebel legislators – Byrathi Basavaraj. The fight in KR Puram is a personal one not just for Narayanaswamy, but for former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too. Once considered as one of Siddaramaiah’s close confidantes, Byrathi Basavaraj’s resignation as an MLA and subsequent defection to BJP has been a bitter pill for Siddaramaiah to swallow. Defeating Basavaraj, Congress leaders say, is on the former Chief Minister’s personal agenda. Basavaraj, a Kuruba leader, MTB Nagaraj former Hoskote MLA and Yeshwantpur MLA ST Somashekar – were three former associates of Siddaramaiah, who defected to the BJP. The trio, who once shouted praises for Siddaramaiah and offered their ‘eternal gratitude’ to Siddaramaiah in political rallies, were known as “Siddaramaiah’s personal cabinet”. After the defection, the Congress decided to field Vokkaliga leader A Narayanaswamy, Byrathis’ former mentee, as the party candidate. Although not a rookie to electoral politics, Narayanaswamy’s clout in KR Puram is significantly less compared to Byrathi. Moreover, Basavaraj has the suooier of four out of six Congress corporators from the KR Puram segment. Congress insiders say that corporators BN Jayaprakash (Basavanapura), MN Srikanth (Devasandra), V Suresh (Narayanapura)and SG Nagaraj (Vignananagar) are offering their support for Basavaraj behind the scenes. This has resulted in a tough fight for A Narayanaswamy and the Congress has brought out the big guns to help him win the elections. Former Water Resource Minister DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah are actively campaigning for Narayanaswamy and hoping that the caste equation in KR Puram will help them win the bye-polls. KR Puram has around 71,000 Vokkaligas, 47,000 from the Muslim community, 38,000 Christians and around 62,000 from the Kuruba community. While Basavaraj’s followers say that he is sure to bag most of the Kuruba votes, BJP insiders say that Siddaramaiah’s involvement in the campaign may create a dent in Basavaraj’s voter base. “The BJP does not have Vokkaliga votes. That will be split between Congress and the JD(S) candidate C Krishnamurthy. KR Puram has been the turf of the Congress because the Kuruba, Vokkaliga and minority voters shy away from electing a BJP leader. Siddaramaiah had fought with senior Congress leader A Krishnappa and given Byrathi a ticket to contest elections for the first time in 2013. Siddaramaiah had campaigned for Byrathi and ensured his victory. Byrathi Basavaraj may be a Kuruba leader but he is not in Siddaramaah’s league,” a senior Congress leader said.
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