The party's Karnataka in-charge and Union HRD minister, Prakash Javadekar said that the BJP had changed its approach towards preparing the manifesto. "We want to make manifesto drafting a Private Public People's Participation process. Therefore, we are eliciting public opinion, he said.
The meeting was organised at BMS Engineering College campus which is situated in Basavanagudi, a BJP citadel. Mr Javdekar said people's views would not only be used in the manifesto, it would be incorporated in the vision statement too. “We do not believe in thrusting our views on the public. If you analyse philosophy behind the Swacha Bharat and Ujala programmes, one can easily realise that the NDA government is giving voice to people's aspirations."
Attacking the previous Congress government at the Centre and the one in Karnataka, he quipped that the Congress always considerswhat it would get from any scheme. "When the Congress was in power, they would buy LED bulbs at Rs 300 per bulb but after we came to power, we negotiated with the companies to buy them at Rs 60 per bulb."
Attacking the Siddaramaiah government, he said that when he was the environment minister, he visited Bellandur lake along with the then Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu. "we gave Rs 800 crore to this government but no one knew where the money went," he said.
