BJP, JD(S) leaders helped win Channapatna bypoll! D K Shivakumar

NT Correspondent

Ramangara (Karnataka)

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday hinted at cracks and squabbling within the BJP and the JD(S), as he gave credit to the leaders of these parties for the defeat of JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Channapatna assembly bypoll. Congress candidate C P Yogeeshwara won in Channapatna bypoll with a margin of 25,413 votes against his nearest rival and NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, for which the results were announced on Saturday. The Congress party swept all the three assembly constituencies in Karnataka, namely Channapatna, Sandur and Shiggaon, which went for bypolls.

Nikhil is the son of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. In September last year, JD(S) joined the NDA led by BJP. "Many people from across the parties have helped us in this election (Channapatna). Congress had only 16,000 votes in the previous assembly election. It increased in the Lok Sabha election," Shivakumar told reporters here. According to him, many people from the JD(S) and the BJP supported the Congress. "If the BJP and the JD(S) leaders had not supported us directly or indirectly, we wouldn't have got so many votes. I congratulate them," Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said. He quipped that the JD(S), which had 19 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, has now been reduced to 18. Hailing the electorate, the Deputy CM said this was the people's verdict in favour of C P Yogeeshwara to develop Channapatna constituency. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka flayed D K Shivakumar for creating the rift between BJP and the JD(S). "Shivakumar should not try to pitch us (BJP and the JD-S) against each other," the former Deputy CM told reporters in Srirangapatna in Mandya district.

He sought to know who was responsible for Shivakumar's brother and three-time MP D K Suresh's defeat in this year's Lok Sabha election from Bengaluru Rural constituency. "Who is responsible for D K Suresh's defeat? Wasn't it Congress? Wasn't it Siddaramaiah? Will he (Shivakumar) accept it? If he accepts, then I will speak on it," Ashoka said. He alleged that Shivakumar got C P Yogeeshwara from the BJP as there was no candidate in Congress.

"The Congress could not get a candidate for Channapatna and poached one from the BJP. Don't you have a Congress worker in Channapatna?" he questioned. Ahead of the Channapatna assembly bypoll, Yogeeshwara quit the BJP and joined the Congress.