Kalaburagi: Senior JD(S) leader and Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna has indicated that the JD(S) will field its own candidate in the Mandya Lok Sabha seat and would not give it to its coalition partner, Congress even if the latter demands it.
“The JD(S) has seven MLAs in the Assembly constituencies falling under the Mandya Lok Sabha seat", Mr Revanna said when media persons asked him whether the JD(S) would give in to the Congress plea to allot the Mandya seat to Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late actor-politician Ambareesh.
A tug-of-war has broken out between the two coalition partners over the issue of fielding their respective candidates in the Mandya Lok Sabha seat with both parties demanding the seat. Regarding the Hassan Lok Sabha seat, Mr Revanna said his son Prajwal will enter the fray as the JD(S) candidate if Mr Deve Gowda gives the green signal.
He flayed the BJP over the “step-motherly attitude” displayed by the Union government in the release of grants for drought relief work in the state.
“The BJP government has sanctioned Rs 4,000 crore for Maharashtra where its government is in office. But for Karnataka, it has released only Rs 9,32 crores. The state BJP leaders should be ashamed of this,” he remarked.
He refuted the allegations that he interfered in the affairs of other departments. “Only once did I make a statement regarding an issue which fell under the Primary Education Department by urging the Chief Minister to open 1000 English medium schools as I wanted the children of poorer sections to get English education.”
