Kalaburagi: Mocking Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s chances of winning from Chamundeshwari these coming assembly polls, state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa on Friday dared him to get elected from the constituency where the “earth was shaking under his feet.”
“If Siddaramaiah has the guts, let him contest from Chamundeshwari. But he wants to flee to Badami as it is home to a large number of his caste people, ” he added disdainfully,addressing a large gathering of BJP supporters after Mr Malikayya Guttedar, who recently quit the Congress to join the party , filed his nomination papers for Afzalpur constituency.
Coming down hard on Mr Siddaramiah for trying to divide the Veerashaiva –Lingayats on the pretext of giving Lingayats an independent religion status, he claimed his main intention was to stop him from becoming Chief Minister.
“I appeal to Veerashaiva-Lingayats not to fall prey to the trap he has laid. He has not made even one Veerashaiva-Lingayat officer a deputy commissioner.”
Promising to make Mr Guttedar a Cabinet minister if elected to power Mr Yeddyurappa asserted, “Let there be no doubt that we will achieve our Mission 150. With the help of Mr Guttedar we will win 15 to 20 seats in Hyderabad Karnataka alone.”
Taking note of the sizeable number of Koli voters in the constituency, he promised to persuade the Prime Minister to recognise the community as a scheduled tribe and list the Maratha community under the 2(A) category within six months of becoming Chief Minister.
Mr Yeddyurappa revealed that the party manifesto would be released within four or five days and promised to set aside one lakh crore for irrigation and provide 12 hours of free power for farmers’ IP sets if elected.
As for Mr Guttedar, he said that he found it suffocating to be in the Congress, which was under one family rule.
“Mr Yeddyurappa is like Basavanna as he treats all communities with the same respect,” he added adroitly, in a clear appeal to the Lingayat voters.
‘CM sensed defeat in Chamundeshwari’
Union minister H N Ananth Kumar ridiculed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for toying with the idea of contesting from two Assembly constituencies, charging that the leader contemplated shifting to Badami as he feared defeat in his home constituency, Chamundeshwari, in Mysuru district.
Addressing media persons here on Friday, Mr. Ananth Kumar said Mr Siddaramaiah was known to move constituencies and parties during his political career. “There is nothing surprising about Chief Minister’s decision to migrate to a new constituency. Mr Siddaramaiah has mastered the art of migration from the day he entered politics. He migrated from JD(S) to Congress. Earlier he was identified in anti Congress movement, but socialist Mr Siddaramaiah migrated to Congress. Some time he was in Janata Party, then moved to Janata Dal, Samajawadi Janata party and later moved to Janata Dal (S)”, Mr. Ananth Kumar added.
He said people of Karnataka were fed up with the Congress government. Besides, the Congress was a divided house, with veteran Congressmen identified with senior leader Mallikarjuna Kharge and recent entrants with Mr Siddaramaiah.
