DK Shivkumar met Kharge, gave election preparation report

Bengaluru: DCM DK Shivakumar on Wednesday met AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence here and discussed the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state.

“I have submitted a report on election preparedness in the state,” Shivakumar said. He will accompany Kharge when his son-in-law Radhakrishna Dodamani files his nomination from Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat on April 12. He also got Kharge dates to campaign in some parts of the state.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh PCC president YS Sharmila met Shivakumar at his residence and discussed the party’s situation in his state, where simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha elections are going to be held.
‘Can’t support Dingleshwar’
Shivkumar clarified that if Dingleshwar Swamiji contests as an independent candidate from Hubli-Dharwad Lok Sabha seat, there will be no question of supporting him.
“If we support, we will support directly. Why should we give tacit support? We have already declared the candidate and issued him B-Form. If Swamiji had taken this decision earlier, things would have been different. Our candidate is already working. We respect Swamiji who has always worked on secular principles,” he remarked.
Shivakumar said the JDS would lose all the three seats it is contesting, and also in Bengaluru Rural, from where former PM HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr CN Manjunath is the BJP candidate. “Deve Gowda is talking about four seats. They will not win even a single seat,” Shivakumar said.