BENGALURU: The president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday disclosed the efforts of the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to woo Congress MLAs by offering them Rs 50 crore each to cross vote in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka but BJP failed in its attempt to get Congress MLAs cross-vote in favour of BJP nominee. Adding, Shivakumar said that BJP had contacted senior Congress leader and Davangere MLA Shyamanur Shivashankarappa to cross vote but were unsuccessful.
In the Rajya Sabha election held in February this year, Congress nominees-Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekar won the election while BJP’s nominee Narayan Bhandange also entered the Rajya Sabha.
At a function to thank teachers for electing Congress nominee Puttanna to the Legislative Council in the by-election held recently, Shivakumar recalled the Congress party’s alliance with Janata Dal Secular (JDS) in 2018 to form a coalition government having JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister and the coalition government was to last for 5 years before it was brought down by BJP MLAs Munirathna, former Chief Minister and BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, BJP former minister C.P. Yogeshwar among others. Ironically, now JDS has joined the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP at the Centre.
The Congress extended support to JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy to keep communal BJP away from power, he said but now he has joined hands with BJP leaders who brought down his government in 2019.
“Such unprincipled politics has led to confusion in the minds of the people who to believe and whom not to believe, “said the KPCC chief and accused that JDS-BJP together have 27 Lok Sabha members from the State but none of them have pressured the Central Government to get approval for Mekedatu project to construct a balancing reservoir across River Cauvery in Ramnagar to store and supply it to the residents of Bengaluru city, Ramanagar And surrounding areas.
Besides, the JDS-BJP MPs, he accused, have failed to impress upon the Central Government to increase man days from 100 days to 150 days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to provide jobs during the prevailing drought situation in Karnataka. DyCM asked the voters to extend their support to Congress nominees in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in the seats of Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru North, South and Central seats. .
