With Yaduveer Wadiyar, the royal scion, contesting as the BJP candidate for the Mysuru-Kodagu seat in Karnataka, the Congress has mostly adopted the issue of broken promises by BJP in the constituency.
However, Congress has remained docile when the candidature of the royal scion was announce. The goodwill the Mysuru royal family enjoys in Mysuru remained in tact. The Wadiyar family is still revered in Mysuru.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, known for his poignant and offensive attacks on BJP leaders, has not uttered a word against the royal scion Yaduveer Wadiyar. Sources said that strict instructions have been passed on to Congress leaders not to issue any comments against Yaduveer.
Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was the first ruler to merge his kingdom with the newly formed Indian Union. He served as the Governor of Mysuru until 1964 and as Governor of Madras from 1964 to 1966. Later, Mysuru Maharaja Srikanthadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar won from the Mysuru Lok Sabha Constituency four times on the Congress ticket. However, he lost the parliamentary election when he contested on the BJP.
Maharaja Srikanthadatta contested parliamentary elections in 1984, 1989, 1996, and 1999 on the Congress ticket. In 1991, he contested for the Mysuru seat on the BJP ticket and was defeated by Congress contestant Chandraprabha Urs. In 2004, Maharaja Srikathadatta again contested on the Congress ticket but lost the election to BJP candidate C.H. Vijayashankar.
After two decades, Mysuru's Yaduveer Wadiyar has made his entry into electoral politics. He is the grandson of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar and adopted by Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, wife of the late Srikanthadatta Wadiyar.
Congress candidate Lakshman has been focusing on local issues and development. Hitting out at the BJP, the Congress candidate said: "In the last general election, it was promised that the Mysuru city would be turned into Paris and Kodagu would be developed as Switzerland of India if then BJP candidate Pratap Simha is elected... Nothing was done."
He said: "We have fulfilled all five guarantees as promised. If our government comes to power at the Centre, we will implement 25 guarantees. Has there been any communal violence in the last 10 months in Kodagu district after the Congress government came to power?" he said, adding that during the tenure of BJP, "there was a system where communal hatred was encouraged."
