BENGALURU: As things get murkier over the BJP-JDS consensus candidate for the bypoll to the Channapatna Assembly seat, the BJP has now initiated a plan against the JDS. “Didn’t we give the Kolar Lok Sabha seat to the JDS in 2024, which we won during the 2019 Lok Sabha election? On that note, we urge the JDS to give up the Channapatna constituency to the BJP,” BJP spokesperson Ashwath Narayan Gowda said, responding to a query during a press conference at Ramanagara on Saturday.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gowda had garnered 6,71,338 votes, with the BJP candidate giving a tough fight to DK Suresh, who had then contested as the Congress-JDS alliance candidate for the Bengaluru Rural seat, and had won by securing 8,78,258 votes. The Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency also consists of the Channapatna Assembly segment.
Gowda put forth a logic that despite the BJP holding the Kolar seat through then MP Muniswami, it was sacrificed to the JDS, and the latter strove for the victory of JDS candidate Mallesh Babu.”In Channapatna, BJP MLC CP Yogeshwara will be the NDA candidate and we (the alliance partners) will work for his victory, regardless of party,” he said.
He predicted that Yogeshwara’s victory is certain, as even the ordinary worker of the party has realised it. “Apart from Yogeshwara, only Union minister HD Kumaraswamy has the potential to win there. The leaders of both the parties are holding a meeting about the ticket and finally Yogeshwara’s name will be finalised. The situation of him entering the fray independently does not not arise,” he said.
“Yogeshwara is a tactful politician, who started in politics by winning as an independent. When he was denied a ticket, he got a ticket from the Samajwadi Party and managed to win the seat by sporting a red hat. He has mastery over electioneering,” he remarked.