NANJANGUD: Buoyed by the BJP’s landslide victory during recent elections in five states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vanguard in Karnataka and Linga-yat strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa not only stepped up his attack against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah but also declared he would ensure party candidate and former Union minister V. Srinivas Prasad’s victory by a margin of one lakh votes in next month’s bypoll to the Legislative Assembly from Nanjangud constituency.
The former chief minister launched the offensive a day after Mr Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues descended on the pilgrim centre to campaign against former colleague-turned-opposition candidate, Mr Srinivas Prasad. With the ruling party lacking a Lingayat leader to blunt the attack of Mr Yeddyurappa, Mr Siddaramaiah and his colleagues have knocked on the doors of the seer of Suttur math during their visit to Mysuru district on Sunday. With Mr Srinivas Prasad holding sway over dalits in this rese-rved constituency, Congress leaders are reaching out to leaders of all communities, and picked Kalale N Keshavamurthy, an import from JD (S) and relative of Mr Dhruvanarayan, MP, and a dalit, as the party nominee. Leaders of JD (S), however, seem disinterested in contesting the bypoll, in the guise of keeping out of a fight between two national parties.
