Chandrashekar, a former Congress MLA from Mandya has hit out at chief minister Kumaraswamy for not inviting them to campaign for Nikhil Kumaraswamy. He further said that if he had been invited, he would have ensured a victory margin of 5-6 lakh votes
Bengaluru: Old ghosts continue to revisit Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and haunt him.
While the whole nation waits with bated breath for the Lok Sabha poll results on May 23, Congress leaders are sulking over Kumaraswamy’s arrogance in the Mandya Lok Sabha poll.
KB Chandrashekar, a former Congress MLA from Mandya, has alleged that Kumaraswamy did not take Congress leaders like him into confidence ahead of the Mandya poll.
If he had called them and requested them to work for his son Nikhli Kumaraswamy, things would have been different, he felt.
“After Lok Sabha elections were announced, he (HD Kumaraswamy) should have spoken to us. In the same way as LR Shivaramegowda (JD(S) MP from Mandya) won, we would have ensured he too would have won. Now, if they had met us and informed us, we would have worked in Nikhil’s favour. The atmosphere would have been better. We stayed back at home as we were not invited. Had we worked in favour of Nikhil, he would have won by a margin of 5-6 lakh votes,” he said.
As regards the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, he opined, “We have behaved responsibly in the coalition government. We have never acted hostilely. We don’t know what will happen after the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll results.”
Mandya poll is a matter of prestige for the Gowda family. The former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and his son have received a lot of flak for fielding Nikhil as many feel it is a continuation of dynasty politics. In fact, the indignation among the Congress members was so evident that many did not participate in the campaigning process. The open rebellion in the party stems from the fact that Nikhil doesn’t enjoy the support of the locals.
And the candidacy of Sumalatha, the wife of late actor-politician Ambareesh, has only made matters worse in the region.
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