Pralhad Joshi says Siddaramaiah is not confident of winning from any seat leave alone Varuna

“It is interesting to see that Mr. Siddaramaiah is unable to find a safe seat from where he can contest without doubts. He is speaking of fighting from two seats not because his followers want him to but because he is not confident of winning from anywhere,” Pralhad Joshi told journalists in Belagavi on Friday.

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi has criticised the Congress for the continued confusion over the choice of constituency for Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah.

“It is interesting to see that Mr. Siddaramaiah is unable to find a safe seat from where he can contest without doubts. He is speaking of fighting from two seats not because his followers want him to but because he is not confident of winning from anywhere,” Mr. Joshi told journalists in Belagavi on Friday.

“Congress workers are speaking as if Mr. Siddaramaiah’s son is sacrificing his seat, Varuna in Mysuru district, in favour of his father. But that is not true. Mr. Siddaramaiah is not sure of his victory even from Varuna,” he said.

To a query, Mr. Joshi said: “Let Mr. Siddaramaiah contest from 224 seats. We are not bothered.”

He said that the BJP is a democratic party that takes the opinion of grassroots workers while selecting candidates. “We are not the Congress where only the writ of a few families run,” he said.

He said that KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar is trying to engineer defections to the Congress from other parties.

He said that the party high command has given clear instructions to BJP leaders Ramesh Jarkiholi and Laxman Savadi not to speak against each other in public. There is no confusion in the BJP about party ticket, he said.