BENGALURU: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, said the defeat of the BJP candidate in Hangal assembly bypoll is actually the defeat of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as the constituency falls in his home constituency.
In the October 30 bypolls to two assembly constituencies, counting for which was held today, the BJP's Ramesh Bhusanur won the Sindagi seat while in Hangal, which is in Chief Minister's home district Haveri, Congress candidate Srinivas Mane won the election defeating BJP's Shivaraj Sajjanar.
In a set of tweets, the Congress stalwart targeted the BJP.
"In the Hangal election, the actual BJP candidate was Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The BJP lost in his home district. The fact is that the people have discarded him despite his emotional talks such as 'I am the son of the soil', 'I will die here' and 'I am the son-in-law of this area'," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
He also dubbed the election results as a wave against the ruling BJP.
Regarding Sindagi result, Siddaramaiah said the party has improved its position from third place to the second.
He said the Congress candidate Ashok Managuli got over 40,000 votes.
According to him, Managuli could not win because he was earlier in the JD(S) and there was an issue related to his adjustment with the local Congress workers.
Siddaramaiah, who is the leader of opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, claimed the bypolls saw misuse of government machinery and money power, adding that ministers had camped in the two constituencies for a week and campaigned for the BJP candidates.
"Facing these challenges we won the Hangal assembly bypoll, while we have 'lost in a victorious way' in Sindagi," the former chief minister said.
Siddaramaiah also targeted JD(S) saying that the party badly lost the election despite its supremo, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, campaigning there for 10 days.
"Minorities had never relied upon the JD(S) in the past and will not do so in future as well. They know that the JD(S) is an opportunist party," he said.
The former Chief Minister said he will not dub the two bypoll results as an indicator of the upcoming assembly elections "but the honeymoon period of Basavaraj Bommai is now over."
Siddaramaiah said this bye-election was a semifinal and the 2023 general assembly election would be the final where the Congress would win.