Bengaluru: BJP national president Amit Shah has declared that if his party comes to power, it will book all those accused of being involved in the killing of pro-Hindutva activists soon after the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah came to power in Karnataka in 2013.
Addressing party workers at the sprawling Palace Grounds on Wednesday, Mr Shah accused the Siddaramaiah government of providing protection to the accused who killed pro-Hindutva and BJP workers and said the BJP, if it forms the next government, will book them.
The BJP national president also said that after the BJP came to power in Maharashtra, the suicides of farmers have decreased primarily because the state government there has taken proactive measures to protect farmers' interests. This was an indirect attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah whose tenure has seen a high number of farmer suicides.
Hitting back at Mr Siddaramaiah on the allegations of corruption he had made against BJP leaders including party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa, Mr Shah wondered where the CM had got his costly Hublot watch from. He said winning the elections in Karnataka is very crucial for the BJP as it would open the gateway to winning more elections in other South Indian states.
Mr. Shah gave the credit to the party's booth level workers and booth presidents for emerging victorious in the recent Tripura and Manipur Assembly elections. "If we can win booths, the party will win the Assembly elections. So concentrate on each booth to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes in them", he advised party workers present.
Party state president B.S.Yeddyurappa, state leaders and Union ministers were present at the meeting.
Dissuade rebels from entering fray: BJP prez
BJP national president Amit Shah has instructed party state leaders to convince those who have been denied poll tickets and are likely to enter the fray as rebels in the Assembly polls, not to do so.
Mr Shah held a brief meeting with state leaders at his Bengaluru residence situated at Chalukya Circle here on Wednesday and reportedly expressed his displeasure over the fact that the city unit of the BJP had not groomed strong candidates for more than six Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru. The party has been finding it difficult to identify winnable candidates for Yeshwanthpur, Gandhinagar, Chamarajpet, BTM Layout, Sarvagnagar and Pulakeshinagar constituencies.
The party president also reviewed work related to the polls and gave instructions to the leaders to work on a war footing. He reviewed the draft of the third list of candidates which is yet to be released. The BJP leadership is yet to take a decision on fielding party state president B.S. Yeddyurappa's son, B.Y. Vijayendra from Varuna constituency in Mysuru against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra.
Sources said the party is also yet to decide on fielding Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP, Shobha Karandlaje in the polls. Party leader in charge of Karnataka and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and some state leaders have vehemently opposed the candidature of Ms Karandlaje, a die-hard supporter of Mr Yeddyurappa. These leaders have reportedly given a feedback to Mr Shah that it was because of Ms Karandlaje that the BJP suffered a vertical split a few years ago, said sources.
If Ms Karandlaje is given the ticket for Yeshwanthpur constituency in Bengaluru where she had contested earlier, it would adversely poll prospects in other constituencies across the state, party leaders have told Mr Shah.
