Will not contest again from Chamundeshwari: Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Apr 14: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Sunday said he will not contest again from Chamundeshwari assembly constituency in Mysuru, where he had tasted defeat during the May 2018 assembly polls.
"I appeal to you with folded hands...I will not contest from this constituency once again, I'm making it clear. You all should work together for the development of this constituency," he said.
Speaking at the joint election campaign in Jayapura of Chamundeshwari assembly segment in Mysore, he said "this constituency should develop. I have won here five times; this constituency gave me political birth."
Siddaramaiah, the then sitting Chief Minister, had lost the 2018 assembly polls in Chamundeshwari to JD(S) G T Deve Gowda by a margin of over 36,042 votes.
He however won Badami, the other constituency in North Karnataka from where he had contested.
Making his debut in the Assembly in 1983, Siddaramaiah got elected from Chamundeshwari on a Lok Dal Party ticket,
He has won five times from this constituency and thrice tasted defeat.
In 2006, he won the Chamundeshwari bypoll on a Congress ticket by a wafer thin margin of 257 votes against JD(S) candidate in one of the bitterest poll battles in the state.
The results then were crucial for Siddaramaiah to score political points over his bete noire JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, after being expelled from the party.
After neighboring Varuna became a constituency in 2008 following delimitation, Siddaramaiah represented it till he vacated the seat for his son Dr Yathindra in the assembly polls last year and went back to his old constituency of Chamundeshwari.
Interestingly Siddaramaiah Sunday shared the stage after a long gap with old time friend turned rival G T Deve Gowda, who defeated him in the assembly polls, to campaign for coalition candidate C H Vijayashankar of Congress for the April 18 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress and JD(S) joined hands to form the government after the December 7 2018 assembly polls after the election threw up a hung verdict and decided to face the Lok Sabha polls together.
According to the seat sharing arrangement, Congress is contesting in 21 seats and JD(S) in seven.
Congress managed to secure Mysore Lok Sabha seat as Siddaramaiah was adamant about not ceding it to JD(S), which was also demanding the constituency, under G T Deve Gowda's leadership.
The former Chief Minister appealed to both Congress and JD(S) workers to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha polls.
Sitting MP Prathap Simha is the BJP candidate from Mysore.
Siddaramaiah had earlier indicated that 2018 would be his last election.
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Trump says he ‘hasn’t even thought about’ continuing Iran ceasefire
Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he has not yet considered whether he would continue the ceasefire involving Iran, while also claiming the United States holds the advantage in negotiations.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he was prepared to make a deal with “whoever is running the show” in Iran.
“They are fighting with each other, there’s tremendous infighting. They’re probably fighting for leadership in many cases. I think they’re fighting not to be leader because we knocked out two levels of leaders,” he said.
Trump added, “When they want they can call me. We have all the cards, we’ve won everything.”
Referring to ongoing negotiations, he said, “They gave us a paper that should’ve been better. And, interestingly, immediately when I cancelled it [envoy trip to Pakistan], within 10 minutes we got a new paper that was much better.”
“We talked about they will not have a nuclear weapon, very simple … They offered a lot, but not enough,” he added.
When asked whether he would continue the ceasefire, Trump replied, “I haven’t even thought about it.”
The remarks come as uncertainty remains over the future of the temporary truce and broader negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
