From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Aug 25: Obviously enthused by the ruling Congress party’s feat of wresting the Bellary Rural Assembly seat from opposition BJP and retaining its hold over the Chikkodi-Sadalga assembly seat and almost reaching the victory post in the Shikaripuraassemhly seat, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday declared that the party's next target was ensuring victory in the 2018 assembly polls.
''The victory in the assembly by-elections have proved that the people of Karnataka have accepted the Congress rule in the State,” the chief minister said.
Humbling the BJP by breaking its decade-old strangle-hold over Bellary, which was once a formidable bastion of the Congress party, and retaining theChikkodi-Sadalaga seat where Congress candidates won the seat with a huge margin, Siddaramaiah said: ''Our next target is to repeating the 2013 assembly election success in the next 2018 poll also.”
Maintaining that the results of the bypoll came as per the expectations, he said that the patty narrowly missed in Shikaripur as its candidate had almost made it in the election and ''fell short of victory by a whisker.”
"Congress would have the Shikaripur seat, considered as the bastion of the BJP and the former Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had fielded his won son B Y Raghavendra,” he said asserting that the party was confident of bagging the set in the next Assembly poll.
''The victory margin of the BJP both in the in the 2013 assembly elections as well as in the 2014 Loksabha poll in Shikaripur was reduced substantially," he said.
The defeat of the Congress candidate by a small margin of 6,430 votes meant that the party candidate would have captured the Shikaripur seat if another 3,500 votes were in the party kitty because the lead of the BJP candidate would have been less to that extent, he argued.
Referring to the party candidate’s success in the Bellary Rural assembly segment, where the party had won back the seat after a gap of over ten years, he said that the victory had unshackled the people of Bellary from fear who were felling suffocating earlier.
Recalling that only three months earlier, the people voted in favour of the BJP in the LokSabha poll, he said that ‘it exhibited the people’s wisdom in exercising their franchise.”
Modi Magic Waning
Opining that the people of the state have come out from the illusion created by BJP’s Modi, he said that ‘voters have once again looking towards the leadership of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi’.
"The results also infused more enthusiasm on us to provide better governance, and we will take all measures to give boost to the administrative machinery" he said.
He also said the assembly by-elections results have shown that the BJP’s success is a temporary phenomenon and nobody can prevent the Congress coming back to power in the next LokSabha elections.
Asked if Congress would join hands with JD(S) in near future, the Chief Minister said unlike in Bihar, situation in the State was different and hence there was no need for an alliance with them.
JD(S) Not Secular Party
''JD(S) is not a secular party,” he said and asked: ''Who told you it is a secular party? They go along with NDA. It is not a secular party.”
The people of the State have come out of the illusion created by Prime Minister NarendraModi within two months, Siddaramaiah said
''Voters have once again looking towards the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi," he said.
KPCC President Dr G Parameshwara said the voters of "the Republic of Bellary" voted for the Congress party without fear and thanked the voters for reposing faith in the party.
Asked about Bellary (ST) victory, he said energetic poll campaign led by Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and unity among the party leaders were major factors for the defeat of the BJP.