A day after Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar refuted allegations that he promised “Cauvery water” in exchange of votes for his brother, a second video of him mentioning Cauvery to voters has surfaced on the internet. The new video shows him asking voters residing in an apartment complex in Bengaluru ‘what they would give him,’ if he resolved the Cauvery issue and also handed over to them the civic amenity (CA) site they wanted.
“I have a very honest, straight question to you,” Shivakumar says in the video. “I have come for a business deal. You have 2,510 houses, 6,424 votes in this premises. Your major problem is that you want a CA site, which is a part of this apartment, to be handed over to you. Am I right? Number two is Cauvery water...all other issues are small issues. If I get this done, what are you going to give me?”
He then adds, “You make use of me, you assure me and vote for me, within two to three months I will see to it that this has been handed over to you.”
The Deputy Chief Minister on April 7 had participated in several meetings with voters in residential societies such as Prestige, Divinity Sattva Apartments, Sobha Apartments and Vaastu Hill View Apartments in RR Nagar. He was campaigning for his brother DK Suresh, the Congress candidate from Bangalore Rural.
A video from one of these apartment meetings had earlier surfaced on social media, in which he can be heard saying that there is a special water supply being given to water scarce areas and only he knows how much water is being supplied to these areas such as Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Anekal and Bengaluru south. “Everyone in Bengaluru needs to be helped since 7,000 borewells have gone dry,” he adds.
He also says in the video, “I know the builders here, I can assure that until the flats are handed over to you and fulfil your needs, we will not issue the occupancy certificate. But I have a condition, all of you have to come together for DK Suresh, whoever didn’t come today you need to talk to them as well, the 1,500 votes you guys are talking about need to be guaranteed to him as we are giving you the assurance.”
After the first video began doing rounds on social media, Shivakumar on April 16 had refuted the allegation that he asked apartment residents to vote for Suresh in exchange for water supply on April 16. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) were making these allegations to divert people's attention.