Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah is contesting a heated battle in Varuna against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate V Somanna, a former minister. Varuna constituency, which is considered to be Siddaraiamaiah’s bastion, was formed after the delimitation process in 2008. Siddaramaiah won from the constituency in 2008 and 2013, and his son Yathindra won in 2018. Varuna has 2.34 lakh voters, and recorded an 84.74% voting percentage.
Varuna constituency results updates:
Siddaramaiah won Varuna with a comfortable margin of nearly 30,000 votes. As of 2 pm, Siddaramaiah had secured 76,104 voters (about 60% of the total votes), while BJP's Somanna trailed with 46,085 votes.
Update: As of 11.40 am, Siddaramaiah was leading in Varuna by 5481 votes.
Update: As of 11 am on May 13, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Siddaramaiah was leading in Varuna by 5288 votes.
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This election, although Siddaramaiah had openly expressed his wish to contest from the Kolar constituency, the Congress high command rejected the idea. Eventually, Siddaramaiah decided to contest only from Varuna. His son, sitting MLA Yathindra, chose not to contest this time. Meanwhile, the BJP decided to field V Somanna, a Lingayat strongman, against Siddaramaiah.
With 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, a party needs 113 seats to form the government. The 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections threw up a fractured mandate, with the BJP emerging the single largest party, winning 104 seats. The Congress won 78 seats while the JD(S) picked up 37 seats. BS Yediyurappa was invited to form the government and was sworn in as Chief Minister. But he stepped down three days later, just before the trust vote. The Congress and JD(S) came together to form the coalition government with HD Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister.
However, this government lasted only 13 months, until 17 MLAs belonging to the Congress and the JD(S) defected to the BJP in July 2019. While Yediyurappa returned as CM, he stepped down in 2021, and was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai.
This time, the Congress campaign was focussed on the failings of the incumbent BJP. The BJP sought to counter this by invoking the personality of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the power of ‘double engine’ government. The JD(S), meanwhile, appealed for a rejection of both national parties.