Artist K.T. Shivaprasad, who has been associated with DSS (Ambedkarwada), has shown support for BJP candidate A. Manju contesting for Hassan Lok Sabha seat.
At a press conference here on Wednesday, he said he would support and campaign for Mr. Manju, irrespective of his party. “Now we are in a strange situation in Hassan. There is no Congress candidate in Hassan. We cannot vote for the JD(S). The BJP candidate looks better,” he said.
He said in a situation like this there was no better option for him. “For a moment, I wondered what Ambedkar would have done if he were in a situation like this. Members of Dalit Sangharsha Samiti cannot support the JD(S), against whom we have been fighting all these years. Leaders of JD(S) have harassed our people all these years,” he said.
Narayana Das, another DSS leader, called Mr. Manju secular. “Deve Gowda and his family members visit all temples across the State, but in their constituency Dalits are not allowed into a temple. We have fought against these casteist forces on the issue of banning entry of Dalits at Sigaranahalli in Holenarsipur taluk. How can we vote for that party candidate, he questioned.
Ballur Swamy Gowda, district secretary, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, said the sangha would support the BJP candidate. “Though we have opposed communal forces all these years, now the situation has come to support the BJP. It is inevitable. We cannot support Deve Gowda, who was the first person to attempt to break our organization,” he said.
He clarified that local factors prompted the organisation to make such a decision. Besides this, he said the coalition government had failed to fulfil its promise to waive off farm loans.