Mangala Angadi, BJP candidate for the Belagavi Lok Sabha seat bypoll, likened her husband late Suresh Angadi to a COVID-19 warrior, at a party meeting here on Tuesday.
At her first public speech after being nominated by the BJP, she said that her husband was a martyr like the many COVID-19 warriors who had succumbed to the virus. Even during the peak of the virus, he was going around helping the poor. He became a martyr, she said. He worked relentlessly to develop the constituency for 20 years. In a short time of around 14 months that he was Union Minister, he strove to get new projects for Belagavi and the State. Some of them were unprecedented, she said.
She sat next to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and took notes while others spoke at the meeting. Removing her mask only to speak, she made a brief speech. She made an emotional appeal to party workers and friends and followers of Angadi to help her realise his dreams for the constituency. This would further strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Yediyurappa, she said.
Mr. Yediyurappa asked party leaders to see that Mangala Angadi won by at least two lakh votes. He asked workers to highlight the achievements of Mr. Modi and the State government. There is no need to talk about the Opposition parties at all, he said.
Earlier, Ms. Angadi filed four sets of nomination papers. She submitted different sets of nomination papers with Mr. Yediyurappa and BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa and Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and Deputy Speaker Anand Mamani and MLAs Abhay Patil and Anil Benake.
Earlier, at the Sambra airport, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Umesh Katti told journalists that the former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman, and his younger brothers, Balachandra Jarkiholi and Lakhan Jarkiholi, would campaign for the BJP candidate in Belagavi.
Mr. Joshi expressed the satisfaction over the investigation of the allegations levelled against Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi being conducted by the SIT. It is on the right track. It will reveal who are the real culprits, he said. Responding to demands by Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi’s supporters that the SIT should arrest Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, as the woman is said to have referred to his name in an audio clip, Mr. Joshi said that that was not reason enough for his arrest.
He said that the candidature of Satish Jarkiholi from the Congress would not affect the BJP’s chances.
“The Congress is disappearing from the face of the country. It will disappear from Belagavi too,” he said. The BJP has won 41 of the 58 elections held in the last six years. It means that the people have faith in Modi Sarkar, he added.
“[Leader of Opposition] Siddaramaiah keeps talking about the BJP as he has no other work. He should not make allegations that only tend to belittle him,” he said.
Reacting to reports that some forces were trying to release CDs of various BJP leaders, including the Chief Minister, Mr. Joshi said that that would not affect the stature of Mr. Yediyurappa who is a highly respected leader.
