Kannada or English, please. Don't understand Hindi: Siddaramaiah tells BJP leader

BJP General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao for his Hindi tweet about his plans to contest the May 12 assembly polls from two constituencies, by asking him to tweet in Kannada or English.

Kannada or English, please. Don't understand Hindi: Siddaramaiah tells BJP leader

BENGALURU: Soon after it became clear that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would file his nomination from a second seat in Badami in north Karnataka, a tweet from a Bharatiya Janata Party leader commenting on the decision irked the Congress veteran. When BJP General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao tweeted to the CM about his plans to contest the May 12 assembly polls from two constituencies, the CM instead of replying to his question asked him to tweet in Kannada or English.

BJP General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao for his Hindi tweet about his plans to contest the May 12 assembly polls from two constituencies, by asking him to tweet in Kannada or English.

Rao, who is in-charge of Karnataka, asked Siddaramaiah whether he was 'scared about winning Chamundeshwari seat in' Mysuru. "@Siddaramaiah ji are you scared? After much effort you chose Chamundeshwari seat, now after seeing that you will be defeated there you are searching for a second place. To end your doubt let me clarify that not only your two seats, but"entire Karnataka will be Congress Mukt (Congress free)," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Replying to Rao in Kannada, Siddaramaiah tweeted, "Sir, tweet in Kannada or English. Don't understand"Hindi."

The CM will be filing nomination from Badami in north Karnataka on April 24 for the May 12 assembly polls. He has already filed his nomination from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru.

Siddaramaiah has said that he was under pressure from Congress leaders from Bagalkote and Bijapur districts to" contest from Badami. Siddaramaiah had said that he had conveyed to the high command, his desire to contest only from Chamundeshwari constituency. "I have told the high command that I will contest from Chamundeshwari and not from two constituencies. However, the people of north Karnataka are pressurising the high command that I should contest from north Karnataka too," he said.

The Congress, in its list of candidates for 218 seats" announced on April 15, had named Dr Devraj Patil as its" nominee from Badami. But issuing of B-form (required to be filed by a political party mentioning the name of its approved candidate) to Patil has been put on hold.

Badami with a strong presence of Karubas, the community to which Siddaramaiah belongs, was seen as the second safe option for the Chief Minister as reports have suggested that the battle in Chamundeshwari will not be an easy one for him.

Siddaramaiah has won five times and tasted defeat twice at Chamundeshwari, from where he has been announced as the candidate. He has been representing Varuna constituency in Mysuru" since 2008, which has now been allotted to his son Yatindra.

(With PTI inputs)