Bengaluru: It is said a chain is as strong as its weakest link. And in Karnataka Congress minister DK Shivakumar’s case, his sibling love happens to be his Achilles heel. The BJP is well aware of his love for his brother DK Suresh and wants to hit it hard where it hurts the most.

Shivakumar is an MLA from the Kanakapura constituency. His brother is an MP from Bangalore Rural. Now, the BJP, in hot pursuit of another term at the national level, wants to hit two birds with one stone.

With an obvious bid to limit state water resources minister Shivakumar’s role in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has plans of fielding CP Yogeshwar against Suresh. With such a move, the BJP feels that Shivakumar will have to come out in the open to ensure his brother wins. By doing so, Shivakumar, which the Congress runs to every time it wants to extricate itself from troubles, will not be able to spend more time in changing the prospects of the Congress in the state.

To be more specific, Shivakumar is the district in-charge of Ballari. The district happens to be a very important constituency for the BJP as it lost the by-polls to V Ugrappa of the Congress a few months ago.

Sources say that Malleshwaram BJP MLA Ashwathnarayan has been entrusted with the job of convincing Yogeshwar to contest.

“The coalition government is not strong at the moment. Ours is a national party. I am a normal karyakarta. Everything is left to the party high command. DK Suresh might lose the elections. If I am asked to contest, I will follow the orders,” said Yogeshwar. 

Shivakumar has played a very prominent role in the Congress’s resurgence in the state. Be it keeping the flock together from the onslaught of ‘Operation Kamala’ from the BJP or pacifying the disgruntled elements in the party, Shivakumar is an indispensable member of the Congress.