2023 K'taka assembly polls will be my last, but will continue in politics: Siddaramaiah
Mysuru, Mar 25 : Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday said the 2023 assembly election in Karnataka will be his last, but will continue to remain in politics.
The Leader of Opposition in the state assembly said he is yet to decide on the constituency from where he will contest the next election, and will abide by the party's decision regarding the Congress' chief ministerial face for the polls.
"I will remain in politics, but electoral politics - most likely the next assembly election will be the last that I will be contesting," Siddaramaiah told reporters at his native village Siddaramanahundi here.
Responding to a question on which constituency he will be contesting from, he said there is still one more year for the assembly elections, and is yet to take a call in this regard.
"Party workers and well-wishers from Varuna, Hunsur, Chamarajpet, Badami, Kolar, Hebbal, Koppal and Chamundeshwari are asking me to contest from their constituencies. I'm yet to decide from where (to fight the polls)," he added.
There have been speculation within the party for some time now that the former chief minister, who currently represents Badami in north Karnataka, may return to his home turf of the old Mysuru region or somewhere in Bengaluru for the next assembly election.
His loyalist and Chamarajpet legislator B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, who is among those projecting him as the CM face for the next assembly polls, that caused some differences within the party, has even offered to vacate the constituency for the Congress Legislature Party leader.
Siddaramaiah has already said he will not contest again from Chamundeshwari assembly constituency in Mysuru, where he had tasted defeat during the 2018 assembly polls.
To a question on contesting from Chamundeshwari constituency, he said, "I was defeated in the last election in the same constituency where I had got my political rebirth. But it doesn't mean that I will forget the people of Chamundeshwari. They had made me win five times and gave me political strength to this level."
Siddaramaiah, the then sitting chief minister, had lost in Chamundeshwari in 2018 to JD(S) G T Deve Gowda by a margin of over 36,042 votes.
He, however, won Badami, the other constituency from where he had contested, defeating BJP's B Sriramulu by a margin of just 1,696 votes.
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.
After neighbouring Varuna became a constituency in 2008 following delimitation, Siddaramaiah represented it till he vacated the seat for his son Dr Yatindra (MLA) in the 2018 assembly polls and went back to his old constituency of Chamundeshwari.
Ahead of the May 2018 assembly polls, Siddaramaiah had said it would "most likely" be his last election.
Earlier, during the 2013 assembly polls too, he had said that it was his last election and went on to become chief minister after the polls.
Asked whether he will ask for the chief ministerial face of the party to be announced before the 2023 election, as was done in Punjab, Siddaramaiah said, "I will not ask for such things. I will go by the decision of the Congress high command."
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
