DK Shivakumar to JDS: 'I have opened the doors for you as well'

Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar reached out to JD(S) workers, reminding them of the 2018 alliance and how Congress helped Anitha Kumaraswamy win. He also travelled by Namma metro to his Kanakpura constituency to avoid causing traffic disruptions.

Shivakumar's outreach to JD(S) workers

Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader D K Shivakumar on Sunday suggested to Janata Dal (Secular) workers to "think about" how he has "opened doors for them", saying how the 2018 post-poll Congress-JDS alliance had senior party leaders elected. "I am not just a leader for my own party workers; I would tell the Janata Dal workers that DK Shivakumar has opened the doors for you as well. Think about how to make use of this," Shivakumar said while addressing a public meeting at his home constituency of Kanakpura.

Shivakumar claimed in his speech that the Congress helped JD(S) leader Anitha Kumaraswamy win her Ramanagara seat in 2018. "We helped JD(S)'s Anitha Kumaraswamy; we had previously helped Kumaraswamy win, though I won't dwell on those matters now," the Chief Minister added.

In 2018, Congress and JD(S), now bitter rivals, had allied together after winning the 2018 assembly elections. In the 2018 bypolls in Ramanagara, a JD(S) stronghold, the alliance had decided to support businesswoman Anitha Kumaraswamy. Winning the seat by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes, it boosted the alliance's tally to a total of 115 seats at that time, with Congress having 78 and JD(S) having 37.

It has been over 7 years since the Congress-JD(S) alliance was broken up, with the latter consistently supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

CM travels by Namma metro

Chief Minister Shivakumar opted to travel by Bengaluru's Namma metro to visit his home village in the Kanakpura constituency. This was Shivakumar's first visit to his home constituency since assuming the office of Chief Minister a few days ago.

Shivakumar travelled from Vidhana Soudha metro to Central Silk Board junction via the metro, interacting with the public.

The Chief Minister said that instead of troubling people with traffic disruptions due to convoy movement, he chose to travel 45 minutes by metro instead. "I don't want to waste the time of the common man. When a CM travels, there will definitely be a lot of traffic issues...I just travelled about 45-50 minutes in the metro...I'll go to my village and greet the public who have been voting for me since 1985," he told reporters after getting off the metro. (ANI)

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