BENGALURU: Yashwant Sinha, the presidential candidate for the opposition, who arrived in the city on Saturday evening, will attend the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to seek votes from the party’s MLAs and MPs on Sunday. The 84-year-old former Union minister, a close confidant of former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was received by a group of Congress leaders, including Council’s chief whip Prakash Rathod, legislature party secretary Tukaram, KPCC vice-president Ashok Pattan and Sudheendra at the HAL Airport.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah will chair the CLP meeting at a hotel in the city where senior leaders, including the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and KPCC president DK Shivakumar, will be present.
Post lunch, Sinha will leave for New Delhi at 4 pm and it is unclear if he will meet leaders from other parties, including JDS supremo and former PM HD Deve Gowda, who shares a good rapport with Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao.
Sinha has the backing of Rao, who gave the former a rousing welcome in Hyderabad on Saturday. His candidature is also supported by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. “After a day full of wonderful interactions in Telangana, I have arrived in Bengaluru, where I will spend the next one day meeting legislators,” he tweeted.
Sinha has managed to garner the support of AIMIM, apart from TRS in Telangana, but in Karnataka the JDS leadership has promised to back NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu as Deve Gowda was impressed by her candidature. When Murmu had called seeking an appointment with him, Gowda had reportedly replied that it was unnecessary.
BJP’S CHOICE OF MURMU WILL BOLSTER DEMOCRACY: VISHWANATH
Mysuru: BJP MLC AH Vishwanath has hailed the BJP for fielding tribal woman Droupadi Murmu as its Presidential candidate, and said that the move will strengthen democracy and regain the faith of the common people. He told media persons that Murmu is an educated women and has been an MLA, Minister, and Governor. Expressing displeasure over Congress leader KV Rajanna’s comment on the ex-PM HD Deve Gowda, he said it is unfair to criticize Deve Gowda who has contributed to the image of the state and country, and added that political discourse should not target anyone’s health.