Bagalkot: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and former chief minister Siddaramaiah said that the Congress lost the Sira and Raja Rajeshwari Nagar seats in the by-elections because the BJP-led state government misused its power.
Reacting to the poll results where both candidates of the party lost to the BJP, Siddaramaiah told media persons here on Tuesday, that the Congress’ defeat was a result of money power.
“The government should have conducted free and fair elections. It is always the ruling party that will enjoy more power and benefits than the Opposition parties. The ruling party misused its powers and used huge sums of money to win the by-polls. This result will not make any difference and will also not give more power either to the ruling or the Opposition party,” he said.
Stating that the Congress accepts the verdict of the people, he said that in a democracy, voters are the kings.
Speaking further, Siddaramaiah admitted that they assumed that they would win in Sira and give a tough competition in the RR Nagar Assembly constituency, but things didn’t go as expected.
Referring to the Congress suffering its first defeat after MLA D K Shivakumar took charge as the KPCC chief, the former CM said, “Shivakumar cannot be held responsible for the defeat. The entire party is responsible. We will assess where our strategies failed and why we suffered a loss in the coming days.”
Pointing out to why the Congress lost in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in his opinion, Siddaramaiah said, “We delayed in choosing the candidate for the by-polls and in the Sira constituency, the BJP had gained a good number of votes in the Lok Sabha polls held in 2019, which might have helped them win in the by-polls. Most importantly, we lost because of money power.”
Responding to a query regarding the JD(S)’ loss in RR Nagar, he said, “JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy targeted me instead of the ruling party during the campaign. He even wanted the BJP to win in the elections.”
Regarding the change of Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah said, “I have information from credible sources that CM B S Yediyurappa will be removed from his chair soon after the results of the by-polls.”
