BENGALURU: Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, reportedly told city ministers on Saturday that they would have to work as a team to ensure the victory of his multi-millionaire friend, Byrathi Suresh, in next month’s by-poll to Hebbal Assembly constituency.
Mr Siddaramaiah, who invited these ministers for breakfast, hinted that Mr Suresh would quit as member of the upper House as soon as he receives the “B” form from central leaders of the party in New Delhi on Monday or Tuesday.
Speaking to DC, a senior leader from the CM’s camp said, “With all three names been finalised during a meeting with AICC general secretary, Digvijay Singh, on Friday morning for three Assembly seats, it is a mere formality that Mr Suresh gets the “B” form in Delhi,” adding that Mr Singh's office would probably handle correspondence with all these candidates, and summon them to Delhi to pick up these forms.
Meanwhile during his meeting with cabinet colleagues this morning, Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly formed teams consisting of four ministers each for Hebbal, Devadurga and Bidar constituencies.
“Transport minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, Bengaluru district incharge minister K.J. George, energy minister, D.K. Shivakumar and information minister R. Roshan Baig have been roped in to form their own teams to ensure the victory of Mr Suresh from Hebbal,” he added.
Before setting the tone for the meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly cited several instances of how anti-BJP votes had been mobilised to ensure victory and how similar methods could be adopted in Bengaluru too to woo voters.
“He was 0focusing more on BJP's defeat in Gujarat and Varanasi, which he wants to replicate it in Karnataka too. He gave several other instances of how BJP's shallow ideology has failed to attract voters soon after Lok Sabha elections in 2014. We need to whip-up such sentiments to ensure the party victory in forthcoming by-elections as well as in ZP and TP polls,” he said quoting Mr Siddaramaiah.
