BANGALORE: Energy Minister D K Shivakumar’s strong defence of Hungund MLA VijayanandKashappavanar in the slapgate case has fuelled much speculation.
Shivakumar intervened in the Assembly just when Home Minister K J George was about to give his reply on the issue during zero hour on July 4. This surprised many as Shivakumar had a running battle with S R Kashappavanar (father of Vijayanand Kashahapannavr), a former minister.
It also sparked rumours that Shivakumar defended Kashappanavar as the two have business interests in granite mining.
However, Shivakumar denied this when Express contacted him.
“I have no business interest with Kashappanavar,” he said and even recalled his strained relationship with the MLA’s father.
“I was in no mood to campaign in the Assembly by-election for Vijayalakshmi Kashappanavar that was held during SM Krishna’s regime. But due to the directive from the then chief minister S M Krishna, I was forced to campaign to win the bypolls.”
The minister maintained that he only intervened to stop the House from setting the bad precedent of suspending zero hour and nothing else. Meanwhile, Kashapannavar also denied having any business partnership with Shivakumar or his brother D K Suresh.