BENGALURU, 19 FEB

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has alleged that former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was trying to buy votes for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

Shivakumar told reporters that he has information that Kumaraswamy is making phone calls to Congress MLAs and offering them bribes. He also said that BJP is trying to engineer cross-voting in the election.

The former chief minister said Congress is not working on any counter strategy to secure votes for Rajya Sabha elections. “We don’t need it. People have elected 136 MLAs from Congress and two Independents are with us.” he said. Shivakumar also emphasised that he has a good personal bonding with rebel MLAs ST Somashekar and Gopalaiah.

When asked about Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Manish Tiwari leaving Congress and joining BJP, he dismissed them as rumours. “BJP is spreading lies. Kamal Nath is a senior Congress leader and he is not going anywhere. He has worked closely with the Gandhi family for the last 50 years. I know Kamal Nath for the last 35 years; he is a man of ideology and values. Manish Tiwari too is a senior leader and he won’t join BJP. Congress will remain united as long as Gandhi family is there and the country will remain united as long as Congress is there,” he said replying to a query.

“If BJP was strong, why is it trying to attract Congress leaders? If they are confident of winning 370 seats, why would they need leaders from other parties?” Referring to some Ministers refusing to contest the Lok Sabha elections, he said, “The Party will decide who will contest the polls and everyone has to respect the decision.”

Pointing out BJP’s Opposition to change the slogans in schools, he said, “I don’t have much information on that. We are spreading the message of Kuvempu who has promoted the concept of universality. BJP is trying to politicise everything. They are only interested in playing with emotions and feelings rather than livelihoods.”

The ruling Congress, which has 135 MLAs in the 224 member Assembly, with the support of Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha and two Independents is expected to retain three seats out of the four RS seats. BJP and JD(S) with 66 and 19 members, respectively, are in a position to jointly win one seat in the elections, in which MLAs will vote.