VIJAYAWADA: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka elections, results of which were out on Tuesday, leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are in no mood to accept the victory of the saffron party. They are coming out with different logics to establish that the people are moving away from the BJP.
Despite the BJP embarking itself on various strategies and making all-out efforts to form the government in Karnataka, the TDP leaders, who anticipated the saffron party’s defeat, are of the view that the results proved that 60 per cent of people in the neighbouring State are against the saffron party. They say that the people of Karnataka are not in favour of BJP though it won more seats than other political parties. They failed to reach the magic figure of 112 despite bagging the most number of seats. Ironically, the vote share of Congress is more than the BJP in this election.
Right from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to several leaders of TDP as well as leaders of people’s organisations and employees’ unions called upon the Telugu people living in Karnataka to vote against the BJP as the Union Government betrayed the people of Andhra Pradesh without according the coveted Special Category Status and fulfilling the provisions of the AP State Reorganisation Act and faced criticism from the BJP for the same.
Against this backdrop, immediately after the trends indicated that the BJP was emerging as the single largest party in Karnataka, the saffron party leaders began criticising the TDP claiming that Telugu people are with BJP and gave their mandate notwithstanding the call given by the TDP. The BJP leaders even asserted that henceforth the BJP would focus on AP to strengthen its base in the State as well as defeat TDP.
However, TDP claims that the Telugu people in Karnataka have opposed the BJP. It says that out of the 46 constituencies where there are more than 50,000 Telugu voters in each, only five have been won by BJP. As many as 32 went to the Congress seats while the Congress and nine to to JD(S).
Taking the voting pattern in regions dominated by Telugu people into account, the TDP leaders say that in Hyderabad Karnataka region, the Congress has bagged 21 seats limiting the BJP only to 15. Similarly, in Bengaluru city, it has won 11 and the Congress 15. In Bellary, out of the total nine seats, BJP won three, in Raichur 2 out of the total seven and in Chikballapur and Kolar districts, the BJP has failed to get even a single seat, the TDP leaders maintained.
Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said though the BJP has won more seats in Karnataka, it has lost the elections morally in terms of percentage of votes. About 60 per cent of people of Karnataka opposed BJP, he said and reiterated that the TDP did not campaign in Karnataka elections.
Information and Public Relations Minister Kalava Srinivasulu alleged that the people of Karnataka were vexed with the unilateral policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Though most of the people opposed BJP, the Opposition parties in Karnataka failed to convert people’s disenchantment with the saffron party into votes.