CHANNAPATNA : The ruling Congress and the opposition BJP-JDS wrapped up their campaign for the high-voltage Channapatna Assembly bypoll slated for November 13 with massive rallies on Monday.
While the NDA has fielded Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, CP Yogeshwara, who recently quit the BJP to join the Congress, is the Grand Old Party’s candidate from Channapatna.
Speaking at a public meeting, Siddaramaiah said that Nikhil’s defeat is imminent and Yogeshwara’s victory is certain. JDS patriarch and former PM HD Deve Gowda thundered that the BJP-JDS combine is determined to remove the Congress government from power. Siddaramaiah hit back, saying that no one, including Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy, can dethrone the Congress party.
On Gowda’s recent statement that the Congress government in the state will drop all guarantee schemes after the November 13 by-polls to Sandur, Channapatna, and Shiggaon constituencies, Siddaramaiah said that the guarantees will not be discontinued.
Taking a cue from Union Minister of State for Railways V Somanna’s prediction that the State Government will collapse by January 2025, Gowda said, “This is not a prediction. It is the truth. It is interesting that, like me, Somanna also has a habit of consulting astrologers, but he has spoken the truth. This government will not last for long,” Gowda said.
Gowda appealed to the voters of Channapatna to elect his grandson and NDA candidate Nikhil to break the “arrogance” of state Congress chief and DyCM DK Shivakumar.
The former PM said that Congress has conspired to finish off his family using the Hassan sleazy video case allegedly involving his grandson and former MP Prajwal Revanna. Meanwhile, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy said that the JDS-BJP alliance will last for a long time to provide a better future for the people of Karnataka.
“The 2006-07 BJP-JDS coalition government led by me was a golden era, and that will return again soon. If I had transferred power to BS Yediyurappa then, the Congress would have bitten the dust,” Kumaraswamy added.
Kumaraswamy reiterated that both the BJP and JDS were ready to field CP Yogeshwara, but the latter had struck a deal with the Congress much earlier. “Nikhil was not ready to contest the bypolls but was forced to do so. As I have put him into your hands, treat him as your son and elect him,” the former CM appealed to the voters. Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah reiterated that Gowda should have “wept for the victims of Prajwal in Hassan.”
Shivakumar also indirectly welcomed the Supreme Court rejecting Prajwal Revanna’s bail plea.