Siddaramaiah continues to command support of voters in Mysuru

Mysuru: The love-hate relationship of the people of Mysuru with opposition leader and former chief minister S Siddaramiah continues and they are unlikely to ditch the veteran Congress leader. This is evident from massive gathering witnessed at Siddaramaiah's 75th birthday celebrations organised by the Congress at Davanagere on Wednesday, where party leader Rahul Gandhi also participated. According to an estimation, over one lakh people from the Mysuru parliamentary constituency turned up for the Davanagere event to cheer Siddaramiah.

102 chartered buses, over 1000 private cars, 200 truck-loads of people, all trains and all buses leaving from Mysuru for Davanagere on Tuesday were full as per the Railway and KSRTC officials. Rizwan, a transport operator from Mandi Mohalla in Mysuru city, confirms that he had scouted for chartered buses and could get only 100 of them and his own company buses were also later diverted to Davanagere to ferry admirers of Siddaramiah. Munaf Ahmed, another tour operator from Mysuru city, said that even high-end SUVs were fully booked and over 50 Toyota Fortuners, 400 Innovas, Mahindra Xylos, Kia and all other high-end cars were booked in the city.

Siddaramiah was loved by the Mysuru people and his voters in Varuna and Chamundeshwari constituencies from where he won five times. But in the 2018 elections, he was defeated in Mysuru, but was elected from the Badami constituency. Pained by the let down by his traditional voters in Mysuru, Siddaramiah, about a fortnight before the Siddaramotsava, had declared that he would never again contest from Mysuru and the contest in 2023 would be his last.

But now after the record crowd going to Siddaramotava from Mysuru to Davanagere, perhaps he might reconsider his stand over contesting from Mysuru again, say his followers.