Bengaluru, Nov 23 (IANS) Thanking the voters on Saturday for the Congress party’s victory on all three Assembly seats in the bye-elections, Karnataka Congress President and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar stated that it was a victory for guarantees, development and the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Addressing the media at the Congress headquarters in Bengaluru, Shivakumar stated on Saturday that, “Now, our numbers have gone up from 136 to 138 in the state Assembly. I won’t discuss who extended support from the Opposition internally. That will project more numbers.”

“Our guarantees and development played a major role in the bypolls. Ultimately, criticisms perish and work remains intact. This has been proved. The voters have given a message to the Opposition to shun criticism and false propaganda. They have also given a message not to play with the emotions of people. Politics has to be carried out on the lives and livelihood of people,” Dy CM Shivakumar stated.

Dy CM Shivakumar claimed that the results were precursors of the upcoming 2028 Assembly elections in Karnataka.

“The people have clearly stated that the Congress party will come to power yet again in the state through these results,” he said.

“There were different opinions on the guarantees. The Opposition claimed there was no money with the government. We have allotted Rs 56,000 crore for development and on an average each Assembly constituency will get Rs 225 crore to Rs 250 crore funds in Karnataka,” said Dy CM Shivakumar.

“The people are benefitting from the guarantees so how will they believe false propaganda?” Shivakumar questioned.

“The voter is intelligent and has discretion. On the Sandur seat, the lead by which former CM and BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai won was more than 30,000 in the 2023 Assembly elections. Now, we are leading with more than 14,000 votes,” he stated.

One of the seats was located in Kittur Karnataka, another in Kalyan Karnataka and the third one in Old Mysuru region.

“People from across the state have supported the party. People have seen how CM Siddaramaiah was ridiculed and the NDA alliance was projected. Baseless allegations were made and they were projected as big and the people have not tolerated it,” Shivakumar stated.

Without taking names of mining baron and MLA Janardhana Reddy, he stated, “So-called prominent leaders went to Sandur for the BJP but failed.”