Congress afraid of my popularity: BS Yeddyurappa

Bangalore, April 6: Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi and Congress for naming him in their speeches while referring to corruption, former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today said Congress is afraid of his popularity.

"....if Rahul Gandhi is speaking about Yeddyurappa, it shows how much Congress fears about Yeddyurappa... They (Congress) are also aware of the public support and affection I enjoy; they think of affecting my popularity by making such remarks, but they won't be successful....," he told reporters here.

During his recent visit to Bellary and Mangalore, seeking to deflate the anti-graft campaign of Narendra Modi, Gandhi had questioned about re-inducting Yeddyurappa in BJP. "He is travelling across the country and speaking about corruption. He doesn't see Yeddyurappa, who as Chief Minister had spent some time in jail. He doesn't remember that, but goes around the country and talks about corruption," Gandhi had said.

Yeddyurappa, who campaigned for party candidates in Bangalore earlier in the day, expressed confidence about BJP winning all the three seats in the city. "It is most definite that Ananth Kumar will become Cabinet Minister in Narendra Modi-led government.

P C Mohan and Sadananda Gowda are also going to win with good margins from Bangalore Central and Bangalore North constituencies respectively," he added. Ananth Kumar is BJP's candidate from Bangalore south where he is pitted against IT czar and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

Stating that progressive work done by BJP government in five years and failures of Congress governments both at the state and Centre will help BJP prospects in the state, Yeddyurappa said "...I'm confident that we will win minimum of twenty seats in Karnataka."

Expressing his reservations about literary figures like Girish Karnad and U R Ananthamurthy making lighter comments against BJP leaders, he said, "Ananthamurthy is Chancellor of the Central University of Karnataka in Gulbarga.... He being a central government appointee- it is not fair on his part to make such political comments."

Both Karnad and Ananthamurthy who are Jnanpith awardees, are seen actively campaigning for Congress candidates in Bangalore.

PTI