Kalaburagi: Contending that people of Karnataka were angry with the Siddaramaiah government “as it has deceived every section of society”, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar asserted that the BJP would definitely win the coming Assembly election in Karnataka.
Speaking to the media here, Mr Javadekar, who has been appointed the BJP’s election in-charge for Karnataka, argued that there was not only an anti-incumbency wave against the Congress government but also a pro-BJP wave. “Earlier our mission was 150 seats. Now we have made an upward revision of this and it would be 150 plus,” he claimed. When pointedly asked what this ‘plus’ meant, Mr Javadekar replied, “it’s infinity, but not beyond 224 (which is the total strength of the Karnataka Assembly).
According to Mr Javadekar, there were three reasons for the pro-BJP wave in the state: one, people want the corruption-free development model envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Second, people want pro-people policies to be actually implemented. And thirdly, for the sins committed by the government, officers are paying the price (Paap kare sarkar, magar mare adhikari).
“Mr Siddaramaiah came to power on the AHINDA agenda. But he deceived the AHINDA sections who supported him. Moreover he is now trying to divide people on the basis of caste and religion. The people are fed up with the divisive politics of the Chief Minister. Their mischievious design of dividing the Lingayats has fallen flat”, he observed.
He was of the view that Mr Siddaramaiah had deceived farmers on the issue of waiver of farm loans. “In UP and Maharashtra, the state governments have waived off loans taken even from nationalised banks. In Karnataka if the Siddaramaiah government had remitted the crop loans given to farmers, the nationalised banks would have waived off their loans here”, he argued. To a question Mr Javadekar categorically stated that the Centre had no role whatsoever to play in the waiver of farm loans. “This is because agriculture is a state subject”, he added.
He alleged that Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had done little for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region as Railway Minister. “Mr Kharge boasts a lot about his achievements. But before the Modi government came to power, only Rs 511 crore had been spent on the Gulbarga-Bidar Railway Line. In the last three years, the Modi government has spent Rs 711 crore on the project”, he disclosed.
