Kalaburagi: State BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa claimed on Saturday that former minister Baburao Chinchansur was only the first of many former MPs, MLAs and ministers from other parties, who were preparing to join his party not only in Kalaburagi, but across the state. Mr Chinchansur, who is a former Congress minister from Kalaburagi, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party a couple of days ago.
He is the second leader from the district to leave the Congress for the BJP in recent years after Mr Mallikayya Guttedar. Clearly buoyed by the development, the state BJP chief asserted that his party would win at least 23 seats from the state, including Kalaburagi, in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
“We are determined to win Kalaburagi this time and humbling (senior Congress leader) Mallikarjun Kharge (who represents the constituency),” he said, adding that if former BJP minister, Revu Naik Belamagi, had not betrayed the Bharatiya Janata Party and entered into a tacit understanding with Mr Kharge, the party would have won from the constituency a long time ago.
Calling the recent trial landing exercise of aircraft at the newly constructed Kalaburagi airport a “gimmick” when it was still not fully ready, Mr Yeddyurappa said that he was responsible for establishing the airport in the district.
Responding to a query, he accused Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of creating confusion over the farm loan waiver scheme and “messing things up” in his hurry to show he was concerned about the welfare of farmers.
Also coming down hard on the coalition government in the state for its internal squabbling, he claimed that although the coordination committee had met after some effort, its outcome was negligible. “All development works have come to a standstill in the state as bills amounting to Rs 10,000 crore have remained unpaid to the contractors,” he alleged.
