After meticulously planning, plotting strategies and getting his soldiers battle-ready, is the ‘general’ himself panicking more than a little about where to position himself?

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is leading the Congress party from the front in the May 12 assembly elections, has surprised his opponents with some stunning moves in the last few weeks.

But, as D-Day nears, he seems to have discovered – booth level intelligence and other ground reports – that the Chamundeshwari constituency in his home district of Mysuru, from where he was to seek re-election, has turned ‘unsafe’ for him.

Perhaps the realisation has dawned rather late because ever since GT Deve Gowda – his close associate for over three decades, who masterminded Siddaramaiah’s elections earlier – mounted a campaign over a year ago to defeat the chief minister, the ground has gradually been slipping from under him.

Siddaramaiah has won five times and lost twice contesting from Chamundeshwari, but Varuna constituency, which he represents now, is considered much safer.

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But, ever since his eldest son and heir-apparent Rakesh died prematurely in 2016, Siddaramaiah got his younger son, Yatheendra to quit his profession as a doctor and foray into politics. Yatheendra has been quite active in Varuna in the last two years. The chief minister has openly said that Yatheendra will contest the 2018 election, ‘if the high command agrees to give him a ticket.’

Repeated taunts from BJP’s Yeddyurappa and JD(S)’s HD Kumaraswamy that Siddaramaiah will meet his ‘Waterloo’ in Chamundeshwari made him assert even more strongly that he was not running away from that constituency. But during his recent visits to Chamundeshwari, he was reportedly taken back by the amount of hostility among the people towards his government and the mobilisation of castes taking place against him.

The Vokkaligas constitute over 40% of around two lakh voters, followed by the Dalits, Lingayats, Kurubas and Muslims. While GT Deve Gowda and senior Deve Gowda will make sure that he will receive no support from Vokkaligas, the Lingayats largely follow the instructions of Suttur swamiji of JSS mutt, who is angry with the his decision to split the community.

Running a number of educational institutions and occupying vast tracts of lands in the state, JSS has several issues with the government. It was interesting to see Siddaramaiah being closeted with the swamiji for close to 40 minutes on Friday. What transpired between the two is anybody’s guess.

Siddaramaiah is worried on another count as well. HC Mahadevappa, his Man Friday and Dalit leader, is sulking for the past few weeks as Siddaramaiah has failed to meet his demand for tickets for himself and his son, both in Mysuru district. “If you can promote your son, why can’t I give a political lift to my son?” is his counter to the chief minister.

Another important Dalit leader from the district, V Srinivasa Prasad, who was ousted by Siddaramaiah from his Cabinet and suffered a defeat in the Nanjungud byelection, is also baying for blood, and so is H Vishwanath, a Kuruba leader, now with the JD(S).

With so many stars aligned against him, Siddaramaiah is seriously considering the possibility of contesting from a second constituency, if not shifting from Chamundeshwari itself.

Asking his son Yatheendra to wait for his turn and shifting to Varuna would solve some of the problems. It would be easier to win, would give him more time to campaign for other party candidates and also help contain the clamour from senior partymen for tickets for their kith and kin.

But abandoning Chamundeshwari – where he last won in 2006 by a wafer-thin margin of 257 votes – at this stage would be seen as a ‘cowardly’ act and would have a demoralising effect on the party.

He hinted at the possibility of contesting from two constituencies when he recently said: “Party workers have been pressurising me to contest from a north Karnataka seat as it would strengthen the party base there. But I will not leave Chamundeshwari.”

Badami, Basavakalyan or Gangavati in north Karnataka, which have sizeable Kuruba community members (to which Siddaramaiah belongs) or Shantinagar in Bengaluru city are reportedly under his active consideration as a ‘buffer’ seat.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is likely to grant whatever Siddaramaiah wishes, but right now, he’s a general who is in serious self-doubt.