The former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has alleged that Minister for Water Resources D.K. Shivakumar was trying to use money and muscle power to influence BJP workers and voters.
Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Shettar accused Mr. Shivakumar, party in-charge of the bypolls for the Kundagol assembly constituency, of trying to induce BJP members to defect to the Congress.
According to Mr. Shettar Mr. Shivakumar has resorted to such gimmicks as the Congress was facing a dearth of workers to campaign for the party candidate in Kundagol.
“The BJP has a strong network in that constituency and people have expressed overwhelming support to candidate S.I. Chikkanagoudar. Mr. Shivakumar is trying to impose his Kanakapura model but he should understand that Dharwad district is not Kanakapura or Ramanagaram,” he said.
Replying to a query, Mr. Shettar said Mr. Shivakumar contacted some party leaders and asked them to join his party.
‘Efforts foiled’
But those party leaders brought this issue to the notice of the senior leadership and his efforts were foiled.
To a query on the Congress filing a complaint against BJP leader B. Sriramulu for his reported statement that former Minister C.S. Shivalli died due to the torture meted out by the Congress, Mr. Shettar said that Mr. Shivalli was upset at being denied a Ministerial berth in the previous Congress government despite being a senior Congress leader.
“Mr. Shivalli had also expressed his displeasure to me on couple of occasions,” Mr. Shettar added.