Bengaluru, Mar 15: Taking a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has said that his UP counterpart should spend less time in Karnataka and told him not to lecture Karnataka on development and other issues. The remark comes a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the all important seat of Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha bypoll, a seat that has been represented by Yogi Adityanath for almost two decades and five terms and was vacated by the UP Chief minister. The BJP candidate from the seat Upendra Shukla lost to the Samajwadi Party candidate Praveen Kumar Nishad in the Gorakhpur seat bypoll.

The Karnataka chief minister also congratulated Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and termed it as "historic victory". He credited the success to the unity between the above two parties in UP. The BSP decided to support the SP candidate from Gorakhpur seat despite bitter rivalry between the two parties for two decades. BSP Supremo Mayawati, had said that the move to support SP candidates in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituency was taken to stop the BJP, and alleged that the saffron party plays communal politics to mobilise voters.

In a tweet, he wrote that "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. "Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," he added.

Yogi Adityanath made two visits to Karnataka for campaigning, where elections are due in April/May. The two leaders had mocked each other several times and issue of development and governance was at the top of it. The Gorakhpur seat was vacated by Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur seat by Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, because both the leaders had been elected to the Uttar Pradesh state legislative council.

Praveen Nishad of SP won the Gorakhpur seat by 21,961 votes, and party's candidate from Phulpur, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel beat BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,460 votes in the Lok Sabha bypoll.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2018 04:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).