Top Congressman Siddaramaiah said on Saturday he could challenge the 2023 parliamentary elections from Badami, whom he currently represents as an MP, even as a party section urged him to participate in the poll. from the Chamarajpet segment of the city.

“People from the press ask me about my repeated visits to Chamarajpet, I come here because I have been invited several times, that’s all. They ask me if I will leave Badami and contest Chamarajpet in the next elections,” declared the leader of the opposition in the legislative elections. said the assembly.

Speaking at an event in Chamarajpet, he said: “It is thanks to the generosity of Zameer Ahmed Khan (congressman) that he asks me to contest the elections in the constituency he represents”.

“From now on, I will be contesting the elections from Badami himself… it is important that Zameer Ahmed Khan wins (the next elections) and be part of the government,” Siddarmaiah said, even as Khan and those in attendance at the ‘event demanded. that he challenges Chamarajpet.

As those present at the event at Khan’s insistence shouted that the former chief minister should challenge Chamarajpet, Siddaramaaiah said: “… let’s see later”, and praised the MP for his service. to the constituency and to those in need.

Noting that he will run in the legislative elections of 2023, the party leader of the Legislative Assembly of Congress recently said that no decision has yet been made on the constituency.

There has been speculation within party circles for some time now that Siddaramaiah, who represents Badami in northern Karnataka, may return to his hometown of the former Mysuru region or somewhere in Bangalore for the next few years. elections.

His loyalist and Chamarajpet MP, BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, even offered to leave the constituency in his place. The Chamarajpet segment of the city has a large minority population.

Siddaramaiah has already announced that he will not stand for re-election from the Chamundeshwari assembly constituency in Mysuru, where he was defeated in the May 2018 elections.

Siddaramaiah, then incumbent chief minister, lost in Chamundeshwari to JD (S) GT Deve Gowda by a margin of over 36,042 votes. However, he won Badami, the other constituency from which he had run.

Making his Assembly debut in 1983, Siddaramaiah was elected from Chamundeshwari on a ticket from the Lok Dal party. He has won five times in this riding and tasted defeat three times.

After neighbor Varuna became a constituency in 2008 after the demarcation, Siddaramaiah represented him until he left the seat of his son, Dr Yatindra, in the 2018 parliamentary elections and returned to his old constituency. of Chamundeshwari.

Ahead of the May 2018 parliamentary elections, Siddaramaiah said it would “very likely” be his last election. Earlier, also in the parliamentary elections of 2013, he declared that it was his last election and became Chief Minister after the elections.

It’s no secret that Siddaramaiah is fueling his ambition to become chief minister for a second term if the party wins the next parliamentary elections in 2023, and his followers like Khan have already started to openly defend him as the next CM candidate. .

This could hamper the ambitions of State Congress President DK Shivakumar, who also wants to become chief minister, with some of his supporters already fighting in his favor for the coveted post.