BENGALURU: The CBI raids on KPCC president DK Shivakumar and his brother and party MP DK Suresh, ahead of bypolls to two assembly segments and four Council seats, came as a big jolt for the party and its leaders. Questioning the timing of the raids, Congress leaders termed it a political conspiracy to derail the party’s bypoll preparations.
The raids were conducted at a time when Shivakumar and the party leaders were busy finalising candidates for the RR Nagar assembly segment, and working on a strategy to retain the seat represented by the party MLA before he resigned to join the BJP, besides winning Sira. In the past few days, Shivakumar has been holding back-to-back meetings with party leaders and organising protests against the state and Central governments.
The party now faces the challenge of keeping up this momentum. “The CBI raid on Shivakumar’s house is another attempt to derail our bypoll preparations. I strongly condemn it,’’ said Opposition leader Siddaramaiah. “BJP has always tried to indulge in vindictive politics and to mislead public attention.”