Siddaramaiah

Congress leader Siddaramaih on Saturday slipped while entering his car in Kudligi, where he was campaigning for his party's candidate Dr NT Srinivas for the upcoming Karnataka Election 2023.

Karnataka Election 2023: Yashpal Suvarna was indirectly responsible for the fight against cow slaughter and ban on PFI-CFI. These actions caught the attention of the BJP high command. As a result, he got BJP ticket this time.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate V Srinivas Prasad won from Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha (MP) Seat by a margin of 1,817 votes by defeating R Dhruvanarayana of the Congress.

Congress veteran and former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said "false propaganda" that he was anti-Hindu took centre stage during the 2018 Assembly elections and denied he was against the majority faith as projected by the BJP.

The Congress leader's remarks were interpreted by the BJP as a bid to "demonise" the entire Lingayat community, the most decisive electoral constituent in the state even as Siddaramaiah clarified that the statement was about the current CM.

This development comes after Congress released its third list of candidates for the 224-seat assembly election on Saturday. In the third list it was revealed that former CM Siddaramaiah was dropped by the Grand Old Party from contesting at Kolar, as he announced earlier, and the party fielded Kothur G Manjunath instead.

Former deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who announced his decision to resign from the primary membership of the BJP after being denied a ticket to contest in the May 10 Assembly elections, and joined Congress, will be contesting from Athani constituency.

Both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have reportedly told the Congress central leadership that they would visit their constituencies only for filing their nomination and would give their entire time to campaigning in favour of other Congress candidates to ensure the party's win in most of the segments.

Lingayats are said to constitute about 17 per cent of Karnataka's population, and the community has dominance in as many as 100 out of total 224 constituencies, majority of these seats being in north Karnataka region.

Congress fields former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah from Varuna assembly seat, PCC chief Shivakumar from Kanakapura