Nanjangud Bypoll: HD Kumaraswamy to back independent' Srinivas Prasad

Hassan: Former Union Minister, V Srinivas Prasad, who quit the Congress in a huff recently over being dropped from the state Cabinet, got a shot in the arm on Monday with state JD(S) chief, H D Kumaraswamy not only inviting him to join his party, but also offering to campaign for him should he decide to entry the fray as an independent candidate from the Nanjangud consitutency, that he represented until recently in the assembly.

Mr Kumaraswamy, however, clarified that the decision to campaign for Mr Prasad would have to be ratified by the party. The Nanjangud bypoll has become inevitable since the veteran leader quit both the Congress and as MLA representing the constituency.

The JDS leader, who was speaking to reporters here, claimed that although the party was not short of candidates for the Nanjangud by-poll, the “conditions” were not right for it to contest it . Asserting that Mr Prasad deserved to be supported in the by-poll, he said it was time to do something about the “Congress’ misrule” in the state.

In his view, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had no moral right to speak against Mr Prasad as he himself had betrayed the JDS to join the Congress only because he was not given the top job in the state when he was a part of it.

Referring to the recent find of Rs 2 crore in a car entering the Vidhana Soudha, he claimed state BJP president, B S Yeddyurappa, knew where it was coming from and who it was meant for.

He advised Mr Yeddyurappa to stop chanting the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and come out with details of his own contributions to the state as a Chief Minister.

Moving on to the JD(S)’ affairs, he said there was no question of the party doing a re-think on the suspension of eight legislators, who had worked against its interests.