TUMAKURU: Former minister C. Chennigappa, who hit the campaign trail to drum up support for his son and rebel JD (S) candidate, Venugopal, from Kolala ZP seat in Tumakuru (rural) alleged that the party ticket was sold to a former commercial tax officer turned realtor Shivaramaiah.
Interestingly, he had supported Kannada movie producer Sathyaprakash as JD (S) nominee. “Either my son or Sathyaprakash will remain in the fray as JD (S) rebel candidate,” he clarified.
He alleged that a local JD (S) leader took cash and a housing site to ensure that the ticket was issued to Mr Shivaramaiah even as he claimed that he was a JD (S) loyalist. His elder son D C Gowrishankar had won from Madhugiri on JD (S) ticket in elections held to the Legislative Assembly in 2008 but defected to the BJP. In the by-election, Mr Chennigappa contested on BJP ticket but lost to H D Deve Gowda’s daughter-in-law Anita Kumaraswamy. A couple of years later, both the father and son, returned to JD (S) only to face defeat in 2013 Assembly elections from Tumakuru (rural) and Doddaballapura constituencies respectively.
