Bengaluru: While admitting that he was at a dinner recently with Sumalatha Ambareesh, the independent candidate from Mandya constituency, former legislator, N Cheluvarayaswamy, claimed on that it was hosted by Congress leader, Sachidananda for his birthday and she was merely an invitee.
“It is not an offence if friends meet at a private hotel. We could not attend Mr Sachidananda’s birthday party and so on Tuesday he hosted a party in which Ms Sumalatha Ambareesh was an invitee. Could we stop her from attending it? I am telling you once again that the dinner was hosted by Mr Sachidananda and not Ms Sumalatha,” he insisted.
Accusing the Chief Minister of misusing the police to get video footage of the party and leak it to the media, Mr Cheluvarayaswamy charged that Mr Kumaraswamy was busy collecting evidence against him to get him into trouble with the Congress high command.
“The police commissioner must take cognisance of this. It is a known fact that the CM got the video to go viral through police officers. Plainclothes policemen have been following us to see what we do and who we meet. Let them do whatever they want, we are not terrorists to be scared of cops,” he declared, claiming that the former legislators had maintained a safe distance from Ms Sumalatha during the elections on the directions of their party bosses.
“None of the ex-Congress legislators campaigned for her. Mr Kumaraswamy had said he was capable of getting his son, Nikhil elected from Mandya. How could we have gone for the joint campaign uninvited? So we decided to stay away from it,” he said, once again arguing that the CM should have consulted the local leaders before announcing the coalition candidate for Mandya as was done in Mysuru-Kodagu and Tumakuru.
The former legislator also claimed he had information about government officials distributing money to woo voters but was helpless to do anything about it.
Cong not to act against rebel Mandya netas now
The Congress is not likely to jump the gun and take disciplinary action against former legislators of Mandya who were accused of working against the coalition candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy during the recently concluded parliamentary polls. After a video of ex-MLAs Mr N Cheluvarayaswamy, Mr P.M. Narendra Swamy and Mr H.C. Balakrishna who are considered close to former CM and CLP leader, Mr Siddaramaiah, went viral, the JD(S) had been demanding action against them for 'breach of trust'.
The JD(S) leaders contended that the video was enough to prove that these former MLAs campaigned for Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh and not for the official coalition candidate, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of CM Kumaraswamy. State Congress leaders led by Dy CM Parameshwar, KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao and Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar went into a huddle on the issue and are learnt to have decided not to take action in a hurry but to wait for the LS poll results on May 23. Sources said that any action against these former legislators may prove costly for the Congress in the coming election to local bodies. Besides, party workers would rebel against the leadership if action is initiated against them.
