New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has lashed out at the Congress and claimed that constant attacks by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and former CM Siddaramaiah spooked Muslim voters, thus dividing the vote and helping the BJP.
While the Congress has rubbished the claims, the writing is on the wall. Two Assembly segments in the Hassan Lok Sabha region, which is represented in the Lok Sabha by HD Deve Gowda, slipped out of the JD(S)’s hands. The Hassan and Kadur Assembly seats both went to the BJP this year.
Preetham J Gowda of the BJP won the Hassan seat, polling 63,348 votes. The JD (S) candidate HS Prakash was second with 50,342 votes. The Congress candidate came in third with 38,101 votes. In Kadur, the BJP’s KS Prakash won by polling 62,232 votes. JD (S)’s YSV Datta, with 46,860 votes, and Congress’s KS Anand, with 46,142 votes, were nearly neck and neck.
Taking on JD(S) on its turf in Old Mysore region, Rahul Gandhi had said that the 'S' in JD(S) stood for secular, "but in this election they have got a new name JDS- Janata Dal Sangh Parivar."
Rahul had also said the Assembly polls were a face-off between two ideologies — on one side the BJP and the RSS and on the other the Congress.
"In between there is third party which is the B team of the BJP that is the JD(S)," the Congress president had said.
Stating that the Congress believed in the ideology of 12th century saint, social reformer Basavanna, Gandhi had said JD(S) call themselves secular, "but they have become the B team of BJP and are supporting them."
Quoting Basavanna's saying "nudidante made" (follow what you preach), the Congress said JD(S) had to think about what Basavanna said. "They JD(S) preach something and do something else," he had said.
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