BENGALURU: Union Minister of Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday hinted at former minister and BJP MLC CP Yogeshwara becoming the likely JDS candidate for the bypoll to be held for the Channapatna Assembly constituency.
“A section of the media predicted that Nikhil Kumaraswamy might contest, but he has not come to terms with the pain of losing two polls. A person like Yogeshwara who takes care of you people with love for the JDS may contest the Channapatna seat. But there will be a consensus candidate without any confusion between both the JDS and BJP,” he told a rally of milk producers’ unions in Channapatna.
He took a dig at Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar holding a meeting of officials in Channapatna recently by not allowing mobile phones inside the venue. “What is his contribution, except for quarrying and exporting granite from Kanakapura? Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and myself have contributed a lot, creating a world-class silk market, and also brought the Toyota factory (in Bidadi),” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy alleged that Shivakumar has given a diktat to his supporters to increase minority votes in Channapatna, by 7,000 votes. “He did it in Ramanagara and removed us,” he said, referring to Nikhil’s defeat. He suggested that Shivakumar get the Rs 61-crore incentive of milk producers of Ramanagara district released from the government first. “Besides the Rs 5 per litre of incentive by the state government, I will try to convince Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to take a decision to give Rs 2 from the Centre”, he promised, further adding that he would bring a mega project each to Ramanagara and Channapatna Assembly constituencies in the next 6-7 months.