Karnataka Pradesh Congress Chief chief slams poll surveys favouring NDA

Miffed by media surveys suggesting the Congress is likely to have a poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections, KPCC president G. Parameshwar on Saturday slammed pollsters for giving NDA all the encouraging signals.

Speaking to reporters here, he said he didn’t believe in media poll surveys and claimed the party’s internal survey had thrown up an entirely different scenario but refused to say what it was.

Rejecting all media surveys that put BJP ahead in Karnataka too, the KPCC chief said Mr Narendra Modi’s tactics would not work in the state where the Congress hoped to win all 28 Lok Sabha seats riding on a “ Congress wave.”

“We don’t want the Gujarat model of development in Karnataka. As many as 52 lakh families have no houses and several lakh families don’t have toilets in Gujarat,” he claimed.

Asked whether efforts were being made to pacify senior leader , C. K. Jaffer Sharief, who was reportedly eyeing a JDS ticket, Dr Parameshwar said there was no question of pacifying him as he was not going anywhere. “He has merely gone to Mecca. I can’t do anything if you see this as joining the JDS. Jaffer Sharief is a senior Congress leader, who knows what the party stands for.

I have great respect for him. We go ahead taking his suggestions and guidance,” he added. Reiterating that he had no differences with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the state Congress chief asserted they would work together to bag more seats in Karnataka. Asked whether the CM would step down if the party performed poorly in Karnataka, he said a firm ‘No,’ adding that the election results were not a referendum on the state government’s performance.