Karnataka - Shimoga   

Tie-up: Bangarappa’s offer surprising

SHIMOGA: The offer made by Shimoga MP and State president of Samajwadi Party S. Bangarappa that he was ready to hold discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on a pre-poll alliance with the Janata Dal (S) is surprising as he has already made it clear that his party will not contest the byelections.

Both the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) have, however, made it clear that they would go it alone in the bypolls.

It is believed that Mr. Bangarappa’s offer has been prompted by his plan to seek their support when he decides to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Shimoga.

There has been no reaction either from the Congress or the Janata Dal (S) to Mr. Bangarappa’s offer, although the former Chief Minister has claimed that Janata Dal (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda was not averse to the idea.

It is believed that another intention of Mr. Bangarappa to make the offer could be to improve his relations with the State Congress leaders.

Kumar Bangarappa, son of Mr. Bangarappa, is not in favour of his party (Congress) going in for a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

Asked for his reaction to Mr. Bangarappa’s initiative for an alliance with the Congress, he told presspersons in Shimoga recently that it was not proper on his part to talk about it when the party high command had not spoken on that.

Mr. Bangarappa’s stock has gone down after his defeat to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in the Assembly election from Shikaripur.

Mr. Bangarappa lost by a margin of nearly 50,000 votes.

It was widely expected that he would quit as MP after the Assembly poll debacle, but he chose not to do that.

The Samajwadi Party leaders remarks at public meetings at Bhadravati and Sorab recently that he would try to bring together Mr. Kumar Bangarappa and Mr. Madhu Bangarappa have given indications that he is in no mood to continue his animosity with his elder son.

A meeting between Mr. Bangarappa and Congress leader Kagodu Thimmappa at Sagar recently has added a new dimension to the efforts for a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that B.Y. Raghavendra, elder son of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, is being tipped as the BJP candidate from Shimoga constituency for the Lok Sabha elections.

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Tie-up: Bangarappa’s offer surprising

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