Bengaluru: Hitting back at state Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Kumaraswamy, for claiming the Congress was in part threatening and in part giving “incentives” to independent MLAs to switch their loyalties to it, Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Monday demanded he produce evidence to substantiate his charges.
“Where did we threaten the independent MLAs and what did we offer them? When they earlier chose to back the Janata Dal (Secular) candidate, were they offered something?” he asked, speaking to reporters after his party candidates filed their nominations for the legislative council poll on Monday.
“We have neither threatened anyone, nor offered them anything. All we have done is assure them of help in developing their constituencies,'' the minister claimed.
Retaliating, Mr Kumaraswamy said, “We are seeing this happen and they want proof of what they did!” He claimed the independent MLAs had complained to him that the Congress had neglected their constituencies for the last three years.
“Mr P Rajiv of Kudachi told me that the Chief Minister had not considered his request to revive 18 lakes in his constituency. But now I know that the same project was signed two days ago. The independent MLAs have been threatened with stalling of all developmental work in their constituencies,” he alleged.
Jairam, Oscar file papers for RS
Six candidates of the Congress party, three for the Rajya Sabha and three for the Legislative Council, filed their nominations for the polls on Monday.
The candidates who filed papers include former Union ministers, Mr Jairam Ramesh and Mr Oscar Fernandes.
Soon after the Congress announced that former IPS officer Mr K.C. Ramamurthy would be its third candidate for the RS polls, all three headed to the office in Vidhana Soudha to file their papers.
Though Mr Ramamurthy, who heads the CMR group of institutions, wanted to file his nomination on Tuesday as he considered the date auspicious, Chief Minister Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly asked him file one set of papers on Monday and another on Tuesday. For the Legislative Council polls, three Congress candidates- Mr Arshad Rizwan, Ms Veena Acchaiah and Mr R.B. Thimmapur- filed their nominations on Monday while former minister Mr Allum Veerabhadrappa would be filing his nomination on Tuesday.
Three JD(S) candidates too filed their papers. Mr Farooq filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha, former MLC from Hassan Mr Narayanaswamy filed his papers as the first candidate for the Council, while Mr Venkatapathi filed his nomination as the second candidate.
