From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 13: Fully aware of the crucial importance of capturing both the Bangalore Rural and Mandya lok sabha constituencies, won by opposition JD(S) in 2009, in the ensuing August 21 by-elections, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he had no objection to party leader D K Shivakumar meeting KJP Chief B S Yeddyurappa’s support.

''It is his (Shivakumar’s) own decision. He has neither consulted nor sought my permission for seeking the former BJP chief minister’s support,” the chief minister said.

It may be recalled that the Bangalore rural lok sabha seat was won by state JD(S) chief and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and the Mandya seat was bagged by JD(S) former minister N Cheluvarayaswamy. Both Kumaraswamy and Cheluvarayaswamy had contested in the May 2013 assembly elections and had opted to retain their assembly seats after resigning the lok sabha seats necessitating the by-elections.

While JD(S) has fielded Kumaraswamy’s wife and former MLA Anita Kumarawamy, who lost in the assembly polls against Samajwadi Party’s C P Yogeshwar from Channapatna, for Bangalore Rural lok sabha constituency, the party candidate for the Mandya seat is C S Puttaraju.

The ruling Congress party has fielded D K Shivakumar’s brother D K Suresh for the Bangalore rural seat, knowing fully well that it is a Vokkaliga stronghold, the party candidate for Mandya is Kannada film star Ramya.

Incidentally, neither BJP nor KJP have fielded their candidates for the two lok sabha by-elections. The BJP, however, is understood to have agreed to offer support to JD(S) in return for the party’s support in the three by-elections to the Legislative Council seats.

The chief minister, who is busy campaigning for the success of the party candidates in both the lok sabha constituencies as they are the first lok sabha by-elections after the Congress party’s resounding victory in the assembly polls, told reporters in Mysore that the Congress party has not sought the support of Yeddyurappa.

''If he (Shivakumar) meets Yeddyurappa and seeks support, there is nothing wrong in it,” Siddaramaiah said pointing out Shivakumar has not spoken to him on the issue and that he learnt about the meeting of the two leaders only through newspapers.

The chief minister said: ''I am sure you know quite well that he (Yeddyurappa) is no longer in BJP and had formed his own KJP. So, there is nothing wrong in seeking support from other parties.”

''If Yeddyurappa had remained in BJP, I am sure no Congress leader would have approached him for support. Shivakumar knows what he is doing,” Siddaramaiah said.

Asked about speculation over Yeddyurappa’s rejoining BJP, the chief minister refused to comment. ''In politics, anything is possible and there is no point in speculating until it happens,” he said.

The chief minister also confirmed that the Samajwadi Party MLA C P Yogeshwar had met him and that he had requested him to extend support to the party candidate. ''He is with SP, which is extending outside support to Congress-led UPA at the Centre and Yogeshwar is from a socialist and rural background. We are, therefore, natural allies,” he said.