TUMAKURU: Former minister SR Srinivas on Tuesday claimed that some BJP leaders in Gubbi assembly constituency have been egging him to join the BJP, as the state will soon face snap polls.“Bettaswamy, the BJP candidate who was defeated, himself visited my residence and promised to get me the ticket through chief minister BS Yediyurappa,” he told reporters and claimed that he has CCTV footage of their meeting.
Bettaswamy, a backward Golla community leader, called on him as he was not sure of getting the BJP
ticket as he had already lost thrice, and the next choice could be a Lingayat youth leader, Srinivas claimed.
He also categorically denied he would switch to the BJP, and said that he would quit electoral politics instead, as he was fed up.
The four-time MLA had reportedly visited Tamil Nadu and Kerala as small scale industries minister, and collected information on setting up a coir industries mega project in association with the National Rural Livelihood Mission.
“It was a good project which would have generated plenty of jobs. But our JDS-Congress government collapsed, and all my efforts to study the coir scene in the country were wasted,” he rued. “I had identified 72 coconut growing taluks of the state and roped in self-help groups to assist the project and also benefit from it,” he explained.