Yathindra vs Vijayendra in Varuna? Karnataka polls may see a battle of sons

Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, the son of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, has been named the Congress candidate for the Varuna constituency. Yathindra is a pathologist by training and took on the mantle of managing his father's constituency after Siddaramiah lost his elder son Rakesh, 39, in tragic circumstances two years ago: Rakesh was almost fatally injured in a road accident some years ago and had pancreatitis from which he never fully recovered. He used to have severe gastric pain and suffered an attack when he was in Belgium, visiting his son.  He was admitted to a hospital in Brussels where he died of multiple organ failures — and his father was handed the task of getting his body home.

Yathindra took over his brother’s responsibilities at the time which included looking after his father's constituency. Later, Siddaramiah shifted to the neighbouring Chamundeswari, leaving a ‘safe’ constituency for his son. More than half the voters in Varuna, a rural area that depends on agriculture, belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes which include over 35,000 Kurubas — the shepherd caste to which Siddaramaiah belongs. 

However, the constituency has around 60,000 Lingayats, a politically powerful and affluent caste that got the tag of a minority non-Hindu sect. It is also the caste to which B S Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) belongs.

Yeddyurappa himself is contesting from Shikaripura, far away from Mysuru. But his son, B Y Vijayendra could turn out to be the BJP candidate contesting from Varuna, in which case the constituency will see a son vs son contest. Although the BJP frowns upon nepotism of this variety, Vijayendra might get the ticket just to prove a point — that the Lingayats are with the BJP.

This is not the only narrative in Varuna. V Srinivasa Prasad, a senior Congress leader who had joined the BJP after being dropped from the council of ministers by Siddaramaiah, contested a by-election from the Nanjangud constituency neighbouring Varuna. He lost and Yathindra's managers hope this will repeat itself. If the Dalits, OBCs and STs do vote for the Congress, Yathindra's victory is assured. 

In a belt that is dominated by H D Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular), Varuna stands out as a Congress beacon: the party won  12 of the 16 assembly seats in 2013, conceding the rest to Deve Gowda’s party. The BJP got zero seats here. 

The question is: whom will the BJP field this time? If Vijayendra is indeed fielded from here, the contest will get that much more interesting. It is considered the Chief Minister’s constituency, and voters here want it to continue being the chief minister’s constituency no matter the colour of the flag. The outcome in Varuna could spring a big surprise.