Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will not be able to win more than 200 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival at Mysuru airport on Monday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said a survey commissioned by the ruling alliance had shown their tally to be less than 200 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections. “So, they are strategically claiming that they will win 400 seats,” he said.
Though he said he was not in a position to predict the number of seats INDIA alliance comprising Congress party will win in the elections across the country, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he can confidently say that the Congress will 20 seats in Karnataka. “In Karnataka, we will win upto 20 seats,” he said.
BJP’s claim on winning 28 out of 28 seats in Karnataka was also part of the same “strategy” as the saffron party was losing in the State. However, he said the people were “politically intelligent” and it was not possible for the political parties to fool them.
Modi’s campaign
When his attention was drawn to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to tour Karnataka including Mysuru for the elections, Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled the BJP leader’s campaigned in the State ahead of last year’s assembly elections including the public meeting in Nanjangud. “What was the result?,” he asked referring to Congress party’s victory in the constituency.
He said he was confident about the Congress party’s good performance in the State on account of not only the “failure” of the Modi government, but also on account of the achievements of the Congress government in the State. Apart from the guarantees, the other promises made in the party’s manifesto before will hold the Congress in good stead in the coming Lok Sabha elections also, he said.
The BJP government in the country may have brought down the price of diesel and petrol by ₹2 because of the approaching elections, but the fact remains that fuel prices have increased substantially since 2014. He recalled that the price of diesel was ₹47 per litre in 2014 against the ₹85 at present while petrol was costing ₹71 per litre in 2014 against nearly ₹100 per litre now. Similarly, he said LPG used to cost only ₹414 per cylinder in 2014. He questioned how could the BJP government, which promised Achche Din, increase the fuel prices when the price of crude oil had actually gone down in the international market.
Yathindra statement
Reacting to BJP leaders’ complaint against Yathindra Siddaramaiah’s allegedly derogatory remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Mr. Siddaramaiah said Mr. Yathindra’s statement was based on the report submitted by the CBI to the court.
“Is the CBI’s report submitted to the court wrong?”, he asked before clarifying that Mr. Yathindra’s statement was not meant to insult Mr. Amit Shah.
Srinivas Prasad
Responding to speculations over his possible meeting with former Minister V. Srinivas Prasad, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had neither spoken to him over phone nor was planning to meet him during his visit to Mysuru.
However, he said Minister for Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa and Minister for Animal Husbandry K. Venkatesh had met Mr. Prasad. When asked for Mr. Prasad’s response to the overtures of the Congress party, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the question should be posed to the Congress leaders, who had met Mr. Prasad.
With regard to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda accusing him of displaying arrogance, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered if it was not a fact that Mr. Gowda had expressed his wish to be reborn as a Muslim and threatened to leave the country if Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister. “Telling the truth is not arrogance. But, he thinks so,” he said.
