Spend Less Time Lecturing Karnataka, Siddaramaiah Tells Yogi Adityanath

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday chided his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath on BJP's performance in the by-elections there, by advising him to spend less time "lecturing" Karnataka on development.

Congratulating the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party for the "historic victory", he said unity among the non-BJP parties played a key role in the win.

"BJP has suffered a humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & Dy CM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role," he said in a tweet.

"Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," he said.

Mr Adityanath has already made two visits to poll bound Karnataka for campaigning, where elections are due in April/May.

During the visits, both Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Adityanath had indulged in a twitter and verbal duel, mocking each other on the issue of development and governance.

Gorakhpur was vacated by Mr Adityanath and Phulpur by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh state legislative council.

While Praveen Nishad of SP won the Gorakhpur seat by 21,961 votes, party's candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel defeated BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,460 votes in Phulpur LS bypoll.

JDS state President HD Kumaraswamy, who has entered into an alliance with BSP for the Karnataka assembly polls, congratulated party chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for the victory in the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

Stating that regional parties have gained the upper hand in UP and Bihar by-election, the former Chief Minister in a tweet said "there is growing recognition for regional parties in the country. This is the clear example that regional parties alone can protect regional identity and interest."

Lalu Prasad's RJD retained Araria Lok Sabha in Bihar, the results for which was also announced on Wednesday.