Never thought Kumaraswamy would beg BJP to field candidate on JDS symbol: Shivakumar

Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Monday said he never thought Union Steel & Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy had become so weak that he was now begging the BJP to field a candidate on the JDS symbol in Channapatna, which is going to bypolls on November 13.

Shivakumar, who is also the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said he was not stupid to think that JDS was weak in Channapatna. But I did not think Kumaraswamy has become so weak.”

“If the JDS gives away Channapatna to the BJP, it will lose its identity in the constituency. We don’t want to interfere in that,” Shivakumar said, in a chat with the media in Bengaluru.


On the prospect of his brother and former Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh contesting the Nov 13 bypolls from Channapatna, Shivakumar said about four-fifths of the local party workers wanted him to be the Congress candidate. “I have made it clear to them that they will have to work for the candidate chosen by the high command. We have not even come out of the big defeat in Bengaluru Rural.”

He, however, acknowledged that Channapatna gave a big lead to the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls early this year, endorsing his brother.