Mangaluru : Union Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader D.V. Sadananda Gowda said here on Tuesday that he is ready to accept the challenge thrown by district in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai to face him in the next Assembly elections.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Sadananda Gowda said that there was no need for a leader like him to contest against Mr. Rai.

An ordinary worker of the BJP would be fielded against Mr. Rai in the next elections in Bantwal. “We (BJP) will win Bantwal,” he said.

The Union Minister has won elections from Puttur Assembly constituency, erstwhile Dakshina Kannada, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, and Bengaluru North Parliamentary constituencies.

Mr. Rai, at a press conference here on Monday, challenged Mr. Sadananda Gowda and Shobha Karandlaje, MP, to face him in the next Assembly elections from Bantwal.

He had accused the two BJP leaders of fomenting trouble in Dakshina Kannada and unnecessarily blaming him and Minister U.T. Khader for the communal trouble in Dakshina Kannada district.

He had said that the results of the elections would reveal whether secularism or communalism would win.

On Tuesday, Mr. Sadananda Gowda also alleged that Mr. Rai was appeasing minorities and was suppressing the majority for the sake of winning the elections.

“Mr. Rai is the most depressed Minister in Karnataka,” he alleged.

The Union Minister pointed out that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Mr. Ramanath Rai have not shown the courtesy of visiting the family of RSS activist Sharath Madiwala killed in an attack at B.C. Road last week.

“Earlier, he also showed his highhandedness by directing former SP too book cases Hindu leaders. During SDPI activist Ashraf’s funeral procession, there were untoward incidents. People in the procession climbed up the police jeep and shouted slogans as well assaulted youths, but police have not booked case against a single person. However, for stone-pelting during Sharath’s funeral procession Hindu leaders are booked with IPC 308. This unfair,” he condemned.