Siddaramaiah top contender for CM post in Karnataka: Reports
Bengaluru (PTI): A renewed energy seems to have been infused into the 75-year old Congress leader Siddaramaiah's gait as he walked to address a packed press conference in Mysore on Saturday.
"This (election result in Karnataka) will be a stepping stone for Congress' victory in 2024," Siddaramaiah said, losing no time in sending the signal that he has set his sights set on the future.
In the run up to the elections, Siddaramaiah's appeal was sombre.
"This is my last election. I will retire from electoral politics", the senior Congress leader had repeatedly said.
And now it appears that the sprightly Congress leader, who made no secret of his ambition to occupy the post of Chief Minister, is looking at what lay ahead.
The main race for top post is between Siddaramaiah, who served as Chief Minister from 2013 to 2018, and Congress state unit President D K Shivakumar.
In fact, he edged out M Mallikarjun Kharge, now the AICC President and the then Union Labour and Employment Minister, at the 2013 Legislature Party meeting to become chief minister.
A man rooted in 'Janata Pariwar' for two-and-half-decades and known for strident anti-Congress stance, Siddarmaiah joined the grand old party in 2006 after his ouster from JD(S) of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda brought him to political cross-roads.
After the fractured verdict in 2004, the Congress and JD(S) formed a coalition government, with Siddaramaiah, then in JD(S), being made deputy Chief Minister with Congress' N Dharam Singh leading the dispensation.
Siddaramaiah, influenced as he was by socialism advocated by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, held the grouse that he had the opportunity to become the CM but Gowda scuttled his prospects.
In 2005, he chose to position himself as a backward classes leader -- he is from the Kuruba community, the third largest caste in Karnataka, by spearheading AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) conventions, coincidentally at a time when Deve Gowda's son H D Kumaraswamy was seen as a rising star of the party.
He was sacked from the JD(S), where he had earlier served as its state unit chief, with critics of the party insisting he was removed as Deve Gowda was keen to promote Kumaraswamy as the party's leader.
Siddaramaiah, an advocate, at the time also talked about "political sanyas" and even toyed with the idea of going back to practice law. He ruled out floating a regional outfit, saying he can't muster money power. Both the BJP and the Congress wooed him to join their ranks.
But he said he did not agree with the BJP ideology and joined the Congress with his followers in 2006, a move considered "unthinkable" only a couple of years earlier then.
Rustic in appearance at times, and not known to mince words, Siddaramaiah never hid his ambition to become chief minister and had repeatedly stressed on it unapologetically and unhesitatingly insisting that there is nothing wrong in aspiring for the post.
Siddaramaiah, who had grown to become a mass leader, has the distinction of presenting as many as 13 state budgets as Finance Minister.
Some of his friends say he has a somewhat "overpowering" personality and remains steadfast in his goals.
Making his debut in the Assembly in 1983, Siddaramaiah had got elected from Chamundeshwari on a Lok Dal Party ticket. He has won five times from this constituency and tasted defeat thrice.
He was the first Chairman of 'Kannada Kavalu Samiti', a watchdog committee which had the mandate to supervise the implementation of Kannada as official language formed during Ramakrishna Hegde's chief ministership. Siddaramaiah later became Sericulture Minister.
In the midterm elections two years later, he was re-elected and served as Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services in the Hegde government.
However, Siddaramaiah tasted defeat in the 1989 and 1999 Assembly elections. He was Chairman of the KPCC Publicity committee of Elections in 2008.
Born on August 12, 1948 at Siddaramanahundi, a village in Mysuru district, Siddaramaiah graduated from Mysore University with B.Sc. Degree and later studied Law from the same institution and pursued it as a profession for some time.
Siddaramaiah led a successful five year term as Chief Minister of Congress government between 2013-18.
Despite being popular because of populist "Bhagya" schemes, Congress faced a defeat in 2018. According to political observers and many within the Congress, Siddaramaiah government's decision to accord "religious minority" status to the dominant Lingayat community had resulted in electoral losses for the party in 2018 Assembly polls.
Not only did the Congress lose badly in the Lingayat-dominated constituencies then, but a majority of prominent leaders who were actively involved in the "separate Lingayat religion" movement, suffered defeat.
As the then sitting chief minister, Siddaramaiah himself lost the 2018 polls in Chamundeshwari in Mysuru to JD(S)' G T Deve Gowda by 36,042 votes.
He, however, won from Badami, the other constituency from where he had contested then and defeated BJP's B Sriramulu by 1,696 votes.
After neighbouring Varuna became a constituency in 2008 following delimitation, Siddaramaiah represented it till he vacated the seat for his son Dr Yatindra in the 2018 assembly polls and went back to his old constituency of Chamundeshwari.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
