Bengaluru: Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency sitting Janata Dal (secular) G T Deve Gowda statement on BJP leaders silently working for his victory has stirred a hornet’s nest in Mysuru district.
The video has gone viral in social media and has given a weapon to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to attack both BJP and JD(S) having tacit understanding in Chamundeshwari, Varuna and K R Nagar assembly constituencies in district. While BJP leaders have ruled out any kind of truck with JD(S), the JD(S) leaders say it was an individual statement of Mr Gowda and not of the party. But one thing is true, the BJP leaders at local level were working for Mr Gowda as their party nominee is a dummy candidate.
Mr Ashok Narayana, an office-bearer of BJP’s Mysuru unit told Deccan Chronicle that the fight in Chamundeshwari is clearly between Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Deve Gowda and BJP’s Gopal Rao was not a match to the duo. Mr Rao had been fielded that there would be no division of votes and route all its traditional votes in favour of Mr Gowda. This arrangement has been made at local level without the official seal. "We are supporting the JD(S) since it’s strong in Chamundeshwari. Like this, JD(S) is supporting BJP nominee Thotadappa Basavaraj in Varuna".
Mr Gowda told this reporter that BJP had no base in Chamundeshwari constituency in last election and it polled just 8,000 votes. This time, a number of BJP workers in over 50 villages have pledged their support to me since both their common enemy was Mr Siddaramaiah. Similarly, our workers in Varuna constituency are working tacitly for the BJP candidate Mr Basavaraj. Mr Siddaramaiah is filled with ego and arrogance and time had come to defeat his son, Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah, the Congress candidate. Mr Vijayendra Yeddyurappa had the chances of defeating the CM's son. But something went wrong in the BJP camp, he added.
Mr Madegowda of JD(S) said this time none can stop the victory of Mr Gowda thanks to support not only from his party workers but also from the saffron party. Our arrangement is like give and take-we are giving support for BJP in Varuna and taking their support in Chamundeshwari constituency. The BJP has fielded its local candidate with not much weight in Chamundeshwari constituency and that's our advantage.
Taking Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency as a battle of prestige, JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda and state JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy are visiting this constituency three to four times in a week to muster the support for their candidate. Mr Kumaraswamy had already completed one round of the constituency and even the party supremo is visiting the Chamundeshwari constituency to defeat Mr Siddaramaiah in May 12 assembly elections.
May 15 will reveal whether the secret pact between JD(S) and BJP yielded desired results.
