Bengaluru, 31 Mar

Veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday appealed to the voters of two Assembly seats going to bypolls to defeat the Congress, claiming that the ruling party has a "brute majority" in the State, and a by-election win will let them indulge in more corruption, intoxicated with power. Bypolls for the Bagalkot and Davangere South Assembly constituencies will be held on 9 April. The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs HY Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, respectively.

"Today and tomorrow, I will campaign for our candidate Srinivas in Davangere. On April 5 and 6, I will campaign for our candidate Charantimath in Bagalkot. I'm one hundred per cent confident that our candidates will win in both constituencies with a huge margin," Yediyurappa said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, there is rampant corruption in Karnataka and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has forgotten the welfare of the people and is running an administration in the state that resembles "Tughlaq Darbar". "The Congress government has a brute majority. If they win the bypolls, it will give them an opportunity to indulge in more corruption, intoxicated with power. So I appeal to the voters of both constituencies with folded hands to teach the Congress a lesson by ensuring BJP candidates win in both constituencies," he added.

The BJP has fielded former MLA Veerabhadrayya Charantimath - who was defeated in the 2023 election - as its candidate in Bagalkot and pitted a fresh face, Srinivas T Dasakariyappa, in Davangere South. Responding to a question on expelled BJP legislator Basangouda Patil Yatnal willing to campaign on behalf of party candidate Charantimath in Bagalkot, the former CM said, "Let anyone come, there is an opportunity. I welcome it."

Pointing out that CM Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues are "camping" in both constituencies to campaign for Congress candidates, he said this shows that the fear of defeat is worrying them. "I request the people to teach them a lesson." When asked about the State government's decision to replace the marks system for third languages like Hindi in the SSLC (class 10) exam with a grading system that will not impact a student's overall results, starting this academic year, Yediyurappa said that learning Hindi will not affect Kannada, and requested that no confusion be created regarding this matter.

 "I don't want to speak much on this issue. It is probably difficult to converse in any language other than Hindi across the country. So I don't accept discouragement towards learning Hindi," he said. "But some have their own view. It (learning Hindi) is not a betrayal of Kannada. I humbly want to state that learning Hindi will not affect Kannada and request not to create confusion in this regard," he added.