Congress goes all out to wrest Chamarajanagar seat

Mysuru: Sunil Bose (in pic), who is tipped to be the Congress’ candidate from Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha constituency, met former Union minister and senior Dalit leader V Srinivasa Prasad at his residence in the city on Thursday.
Bose, who is the son of Mysuru district minister HC Mahadevappa, sought the blessings of Prasad, the sitting Chamarajanagar MP.Prasad has retired from active politics but has said he will work for BJP.
It is rumoured in political circles that chief minister Siddaramaiah had a telephonic conversation with Prasad during his stay at a resort in HD Kote where the Congress leaders focused on strategies to wrest back Mysuru and Chamarajanagar segments.
Mahadevappa also met the senior leader and sought his support for Bose and Mysuru candidate M Lakshmana as Prasad enjoys considerable support in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.
CM Siddaramaiah's son and former MLA Yathindra Siddaramaiah, minister K Venkatesh were also present.
Miffed over dropping him from the Siddaramaiah cabinet in 2016, Prasad, who was close to Siddaramaiah, had resigned from his assembly seat and contested unsuccessfully as the BJP candidate in the Nanjangud bypoll.
Though he had decided to retire from electoral politics, BJP leaders persuaded him to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, which he won defeating R Dhruvanarayan of Congress.
Prasad was elected to the parliament from Chamarajanagar six times. He was elected as an MP for the first time in 1980 and was re-elected in 1984, 1989 and 1991. He was also elected in 1999 and 2019. He served as a member of the legislative assembly from 2008 to 2016.
Though Prasad was associated with Congress for the greater part of his career, he also hobnobbed with the Janata Party, Samata Party before returning to Congress fold and then joined BJP in 2016.
Prasad who completed 50 years in electoral politics on March 17 has announced his retirement from politics.