Calling Rahul 'next PM', Siddaramaiah offers Rahul to contest from Karnataka

New Delhi [India], March 15 (ANI): Referring to Rahul Gandhi as 'the next prime of India', Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday offered the Congress president to contest from Karnataka.
Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah wrote, "Karnataka has always supported and encouraged INC India leaders. It has been proved in case of Smt. Indira ji and Smt. Sonia ji. We also want our next Prime Minister of India Shri. @RahulGandhi to contest from Karnataka and herald new developmental paradigm."
Siddaramaiah's offer comes days after Congress released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections and announced that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi. The list was released on March 7.
Rahul is an incumbent member of parliament from Amethi Constituency and has been fighting the polls from the same seat since 2004.
In 2014, Rahul Gandhi faced a tough fight from Union Minister Smriti Irani on the Amethi seat. In the 2014 elections, the Gandhi scion had received 408651 votes whereas BJP leader Smriti Zubin Irani polled 300748 votes thinning the victory margin to just over 1 lakh.
Karnataka has in past elected two former presidents of Congress from different parliamentary constituencies of the state.
Rahul's grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had contested the post-emergency General Election of 1977 and by-polls of 1978 from Chikmagalur parliamentary seat of Karnataka.
Later in 1999, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also fought her first general assembly elections from Karnataka's Bellary constituency. She, however, chose to represent Amethi, the other seat that she had contested from in the same elections. (ANI)