Bengaluru: Congress Legislature Party leader and former chief minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah yesterday said the Karnataka Congress wants party president Rahul Gandhi to contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from the southern state.
His statement comes amid reports about pressure within the Congress for Rahul Gandhi to contest from one of the seats in south India. He said Rahul was the next Prime Minister of India and recalled his grandmother Indira Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka in the past.
“Karnataka has always supported & encouraged @INCIndia leaders. It has been proved in case of Smt. Indira ji & Smt. Sonia ji. We also want our next Prime Minister of India Shri. @RahulGandhi to contest from Karnataka & herald new developmental paradigm. #RaGaFromKarnataka,” Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.
In 1978, Indira Gandhi won the Lok Sabha by-polls and made her political comeback from Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka. United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi had contested and won from Ballari in 1999, trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sushma Swaraj.
Interestingly, the Congress has ceded the Chikkamagaluru seat to its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular) this time, while Ballari remains with the former. Earlier this month, the Congress had announced that the party chief would contest from Amethi and Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli, strongholds of the party in Uttar Pradesh.