Battles and the ballot

Siddaramaiah, the Congress's tallest leader in Karnataka, is facing several challenges before the big one on May 10

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

A poster of Leader Ramaiah, a biopic on former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, was released on Ram Navami. It described him as a "king raised by the people", and highlighted the message that the film was about a person named after Ram.

Siddaramaiah, the Congress's mass leader and the only Karnataka chief minister to have completed a full term in the past 45 years, is facing several challenges before the elections, one of them being the perception that he is "anti-Hindu". The BJP has accused Siddaramaiah of minority appeasement, and even his own party men are shying away from endorsing his views fearing backlash from the majority community. The poster, perhaps, was to address all this.

It started in 2015, when the Siddaramaiah government decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti. The BJP was up in arms, saying that the Congress was portraying a "religious bigot" as a "nationalist".

The BJP also alleged that Siddaramaiah had withdrawn cases against Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India activists, whom it called "communal" and "anti-national". Siddaramaiah has vehemently denied these charges, but he finds himself isolated in a party that, under state president D.K. Shivakumar, has been accused of practising "soft hindutva".

There is also the memory of the 2018 Lingayat movement, demanding a separate religion tag, which the Siddaramaiah government allegedly fuelled to divide the BJP's Lingayat vote bank. It backfired as the Congress lost the elections; it was seen as a verdict against the "divisive politics" of Siddaramaiah.

Heading into these elections, the Kuruba strongman once again finds himself at a crossroads. His long hunt for a "safe" seat is reminiscent of the 2018 elections, when he, as chief minister, searched for a safe seat fearing sabotage by detractors from within and outside his party.