BENGALURU: Former minister D K Shivakumar, a front runner for KPCC president’s post, has evidently failed to help his party retain its hold on Chikkaballpur, Hosakote and Yeshwantapur Assembly constituencies during this month’s bypolls.
Mr Shivakumar was weighed down by notices issued by central agencies, including Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate, but took the electoral battle at Chikkaballapur, Hosakote and Yeshwantpur constituencies, as a challenge.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader observed that Mr Shivakumar put in his best efforts to ensure the defeat of Dr K. Sudhakar in Chikkaballpur, S. T. Somashekar in Yeshwantpur and M. T. B. Nagaraj in Hosakote. "In Chikkaballpur, it was no less than a grudge match between him and Dr Sudhakar. Soon after Dr Sudhakar joined the BJP, he ensured that a medical college allotted to Kanakapura was relocated to Chikkaballpur. This was one of the reasons why Mr Shivakumar wanted to defeat Dr Sudhakar. But, Dr Sudhakar held sway here winning with a convincing margin of 30, 000 votes against his nearest rival M. Anjinappa of the Congress party," the leader added.
In Yeshwantpur and Hosakote, Congress candidates finished at the third place. Therefore, many in the party feel Mr Shivakumar's charisma did not work during the bypolls. "He is also known to be by-election expert in the party because whenever he has accepted the responsibility in the past, he has delivered. It is only this time he failed to deliver the results. This failure could largely be due his cases, but surely these losses have come as a god send for opponents in the party," the leader said.
