CM Karnataka Siddaramaiah refuses to give party ticket to elder son Rakesh  for MLC polls

A Congress leader from Mysuru told ET: “All the MLAs unilaterally proposed Rakesh’s name as the candidate for the MLC post from our region. But the CM did not even put his name in the list taken to Delhi for approval. He turned the suggestion down at his own level.”

Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara went to the national capital on Wednesday to get the list of candidates for 25 seats in the Legislative Council, whose members’ terms have got completed. The list includes the names of the sons of other Congress leaders, like former CM N Dharam Singh’s son Vijay for the Bidar seat and law minister T B Jayachandra’s son Santosh.

Rakesh, a failed actor who has made his political ambitions very clear, has not been encouraged by Siddaramaiah to pursue them, till date. Siddaramaiah told ET at an earlier interaction: “As long as I am in politics, he will not be there. If he wishes to get into the political stream after I am not active, I will not stop him.”

Rakesh currently looks after the Varuna constituency in Mysuru that Siddaramaiah represents in the Legislative Assembly. A close friend of Siddaramaiah told ET: “Once sahebru (master in Kannada) retires from politics, Rakesh will stand for the Legislative Assembly from this constituency.” Rakesh is a part of the Youth Congress, but has not been given any post.

During the elections to the Karnataka state assembly in 2013, there was strong pressure on Siddaramaiah from his supporters to give his son the party ticket for Chamundeshwari, the neighbouring constituency to Varuna. He refused to allow it, though he himself cleared tickets to a father and son – Shamanur Shivashankarappa and S S Mallikarjuna – in neighbouring constituencies in Davanagere. Siddaramaiah represented Chamundeshwari for all his political career, till the assembly segments were redrawn in 2009. He fought a high voltage bypoll in 2006 in Chamundeshwari and won by a mere 257 votes. In place of Rakesh, Siddaramaiah fielded his follower M Sathyanarayana for the 2013 poll and lost the seat to the JDS,