DKS to BSY: Why claim only 13? What’s preventing you from claiming all 15 seats?

Bengaluru: Scoffing at Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayana’s claims about BJP winning 13 of the 15 assembly seats in the bypolls, former minister and Congress strongman D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday wondered what is preventing them from saying that their party will win all 15 seats?

Speaking to reporters here, the Vokkaliga leader said, “They (BJP) are brimming with confidence saying they will win 13 of the 15 seats. That is really great. It is truly an achievement of the BJP that they have taken pains to ensure the victory of debarred members of our Legislature. They are setting a very ‘good precedent’ and are still not ashamed about it.”

Further ridiculing the BJP top guns, Mr Shivakumar added that the BJP seems to have intentionally humiliated two disqualified legislators – R. Shankar and R. Roshan Baig – by neither inducting them into the party nor giving them tickets to contest the bypolls.

“Mr Yediyurappa should do justice to these leaders too by inducting them into his ministry as by his own admission, he became Chief Minister because these 17 legislators switched to his side during a fortnight long campaign across the state,” he quipped.

Training his guns on Dr Ashwathnarayana, the former minister sarcastically remarked that he would like to wish the Deputy Chief Minister best of luck for his ‘over zealous’ approach towards cleaning up Ramanagara district.

“Ramanagara has given three chief ministers to this state- former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy besides late Kengal Hanumathaiah. I have become minister while my contemporary, Janata Dal leader P.G.R. Sindhia has been minister too. Let us see, how and where he will start his drive. I think after becoming Deputy Chief Minister, he is running too fast. We must encourage him because, he is trying to do what we all collectively failed to achieve in the last several decades,” he sarcastically remarked.

In response to a question, Mr Shivakumar said that he had met former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram who has just been released from jail to discuss future strategies to face adversities.

“There is lot of similarity between our cases. We need to fight it out. We did not get enough time to discuss anything in Tihar jail where we were lodged. This was an opportunity for me to have a free discussion with him,” he said.