BENGALURU: “I walked out of the BBMP meeting convened by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to discuss preparations ahead of monsoon as he himself was not present for more than an hour,” Malleswaram BJP MLA Dr CN Ashwath Narayan told The New Indian Express here on Monday.
He said, “Along with me, Byrati Basavraj, ST Somashekar, N Muniraju and other BJP leaders walked out.’’
This seemed to be the continuation of a rift between Shivakumar and Ashwath Narayan, two powerful Vokkaliga leaders. Before the polls, Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh, who is an MP, was infuriated over Ashwath Narayan’s statement and expressed his anger at a public function.
On Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh’s statement that cow slaughter is not wrong if buffaloes are killed for meat, he said, “Cow is Kamadhenu. How can we kill a cow?” The other communities need to understand this and accept it as important, he added.
On non-elected BJP members raising issues and MLAs keeping quiet, he said, “Congress is going through its honeymoon phase. Let them settle down with their programmes and policies and then we will respond. Today, we protested the cow slaughter issue. Tomorrow, at Freedom Park, elected members and others will stage a protest on important issues.”
On BJP’s poll debacle, he said, “We cannot introspect in public. The party will come back with 150 seats in the next election as Congress will destroy itself.”
Asked if the party will depend on the Modi factor for the upcoming parliamentary polls, he replied in the affirmative and said that is because Modi is the tallest leader.
On his winning the election, while other ministers, including Govind Karjol, B Sriramulu, JC Madhu Swamy, BC Nagesh, V Somanna and others facing defeat, he said BJP has strong support in Bengaluru.
Asked whether BJP focussed more on the Hindutva than on Lingayat support, which fell 20-25 per cent in different constituencies, he claimed, “BJP emphasises on development, nationalism and good governance. We are an inclusive, not a divisive, party. We are not tuned to caste and community equations.”