A.H. Vishwanath, MLC, said here on Friday that the results of the byelections to the Legislative Council from Bengaluru Teachers Constituency was a pointer to the fate of the BJP-JD(S) alliance in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress won against the joint candidate of the BJP-JD(S) alliance recently in the first polls of significance that was held after both the parties forged an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Vishwanath said that the educated voters in the constituency have handed out a defeat and the outcome will be broadly reflected even in the General Elections slated to be held in the couple of months.
He said the alliance has not worked in Karnataka and JD(S)-Congress coalition was rejected in the 2019 elections by the voters and both the parties suffered a heinous defeat. Similarly, the results of the byelections to the Council from the Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency also portends similar results for the Parliamentary elections, he added.
Mr. Vishwanath lashed out at the State BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra for his statements that the State treasury was empty due to implementation of the guarantee schemes and the government was tapping into the temple revenue.
“Let the BJP members refuse to avail the benefits of the guarantee schemes so as to help reduce the expenditure. Though every member and supporter of the BJP is availing of the scheme, they stage a drama in public opposing it,” he added.
“Let Mr. Vijayendra and R. Ashok, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, announce that since the BJP was opposed to the guarantee schemes no member of the party should avail of its benefits,” said Mr. Vishwanath dubbing the entire opposition to the guarantee schemes as a farce.
Mr. Vishwanath also hit out at MLA G.T. Deve Gowda for opposing reservations in the cooperative sector and said that it does not behove his stature as an MLA. It is even more ironic that the opposition to the reservation was coming from MLA who belonged to Hunsur which is also the native place of late D. Devaraj Urs who championed the cause of social justice, Mr. Vishwanath added.
The cooperative sector cannot be a fiefdom of a family, said the MLC alluding to Deve Gowda’s son Harish Gowda who heads the MDCC bank.
