Poojari had vowed to take political sanyas if the Congress failed to win all three seats in the bypolls. He had asked the chief minister to accept the challenge. “Yeddyurappa did not accept my challenge and hence, the question of me taking political sanyas does not arise,” he told reporters. The Congress drew a blank in the bypolls by losing in all the three constituencies - Cha­n­napatna, Bangarpet and Jagalur.

On Excise Minister M P Renukacharya’s demand that he should tonsure his head following the bypoll results, Poojari said: “The Excise Minister always remains befuddled. He has no idea that there is not much hair on my head and that there is no point in shaving my head.”