Siddaramaiah VS Sriramulu: Here is what is cooking in Badami ahead of Karnataka Elections

Badami, a historical place, has become a high profile constituency by the candidacy of current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who will take on Sriramulu from BJP and Hanumanthappa from JD(S). Badami has many problems to be addressed including acute shortage of water, bad roads and the Lingayat issue. The Mahadayi agitation has crossed 1000 days but neither the state nor Centre have been successful in giving the solution to the problem. Thus the water issue along with other civic problems will play an important role in deciding the voting pattern in the constituency. Another important factor is the Lingayat issue as the constituency has a large number of voters from the community. Lingayat leader Yeddyurappa being sidelined by BJP, his son not getting a ticket in Varuna might make 10% of the loyal BJP Lingayat voters to shift their base to Congress who have declared (yet to be signed by the Centre) Lingayat as a separate minority religion. Watch senior journalist TS Sudhir with Pratiba Raman reading the pulse of the constituency from Badami in this exclusive video.