People fed up with Waqf issue, says BJP chief Vijayendra

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP President B. Y. Vijayendra on Friday exuded confidence that the NDA candidates will win all three seats in Karnataka bypolls as people were fed up with the Waqf issue and the Siddaramaiah government’s approach towards it.

Speaking to the media at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, Vijayanedra claimed: “People were questioning the anti-farmers’ policy of the state government. The attempt to encroach the properties of the mutts and religious institutions, the anti-Hindu approach of the state government will compel the people to rebel against the state government.”

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s approach to the Waqf row was being questioned by the people of the state and farmers, he said. The BJP and JD-S candidates will win all three constituencies in by-elections in the state, he reiterated.

“In the Shiggaon Assembly seat, there was an atmosphere that the BJP has emerged victorious. In Sandur and Channapatna seats, the Congress was under the illusion that it would win at any cost. Now, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his ministers have realised that they are suffering setbacks,” he stated.

“After cancelling his fixed programmes, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was camping in Sandur constituency. It shows that the Sandur constituency was slipping away from the Congress and the people were all set to make the BJP victorious,” Vijayendra claimed.

Former CM Basavaraj Bommai’s son Bharat Bommai was contesting as BJP’s candidate from the Shiggaon seat. The seat was represented by Basavaraj Bommai.

The Congress has fielded Yasir Ahamed Khan Pathan. Congress ticket aspirant Syed Ajjampeer Khadri rebelled against the decision and filed for nomination as an independent candidate.

Later, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and top party brass managed to convince Khadri to withdraw the nomination. ST Morcha State President Bangaru Hanumanthu is the BJP candidate from Sandur.

Hanumnathu will contest against Annapurna, the wife of the Congress MP from Ballary E. Tukaram. The seat was represented by Tukaram. The high-profile Channapatna seat was witnessing a direct fight between former PM H. D. Deve Gowda and Dy CM and State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar’s family. The seat was represented by Union Minister Deve Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil is contesting as the NDA candidate under the JD-S symbol. Alongside Kumaraswamy, 92-year-old Deve Gowda was camping in the constituency and campaigning for his grandson spiritedly.

On the other hand, Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh managed to hijack BJP leader C. P. Yogeshwara and made him their candidate. Both have extensively toured the constituency for three months and carried out intense campaigning in the region.