MANGALURU/CHITRADURGA: KPCC president DK Shivakumar on Thursday said he will accept the people’s mandate in Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Sira Assembly bypolls, but expressed surprise over the big margin of defeat He said the party will take up a booth-wise study of results in both constituencies and also seek the assistance of experts to analyse the results.
Shivakumar hit out at BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel for alleging that the Congress leader has kept DJ Halli riots accused and former Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj in a hideout. “If I have hidden him, why have they not arrested me,” he asked.He ridiculed Kateel’s statement that Congress won’t get power for 10 years in the state.
Reacting to Kateel’s statement that former chief minister Siddaramaiah defeated Congress candidate H Kusuma at Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Shivakumar ensured the loss of party candidate T B Jayachandra at Sira, Siddaramaiah said that Kateel’s statements are immature and should not be commented on.
He said, “When we were in power, we also won all the bypolls. Where was Kateel then?”
The government has misused the administrative machinery to win the bypolls and it is not a referendum against Congress, he added.On Minister K S Eshwarappa’s statement that Siddaramaiah was ineligible to become chief minister, the former CM said Eshwarappa is unfit to be a minister.