Mysuru: He may be beaten, but clearly there is still a lot of fight left in him. Veteran leader, V Srinivasprasad, who quit the Congress in a huff over being dropped from the Cabinet and vowed to make it pay by winning the Nanjangud byelection for the BJP, may have failed in his mission, but has now decided to put his all into making sure the saffron party wins the 2018 assembly polls in the state.
"I have seen many ups and downs. I don't have any desire for power. All I want now is to ensure the victory of the BJP in the 2018 assembly elections by winning 15 seats for it in Chamarajnagar and Mysuru," he told the Deccan Chronicle.
"An election is like a shaky wall, which can fall in any direction. We were hopeful till April 6. But it all happened in the last two days. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who saw the response to our mega convention, systematically planned and targeted leaders of every community. And so although we expected 80 per cent of the Lingayat votes, we got 70 per cent. Among SCs we expected 75 per cent of votes, but got 55 per cent. Among Uppars we got 25 per cent as against 40 per cent and we lost 90 per cent of the votes among other small backward communities like Madivalas and Savita Samaj and also of the Muslims and Kurubas," he said.
Sticking to his claim that the Congress had showered money on the constituency, he alleged that in Kalale alone it spent one crore for eight booths.
