The results of the Karnataka Assembly elections on Wednesday gave a chance for both ruling and Opposition parties in the State to blow their trumpet. If Congress leaders saw in the results a much-needed boost ahead of the D-Day in 2014, their Opposition counterparts drew exactly the opposite inference.
PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana said the people of Karnataka had given the mandate to the Congress for fighting against corruption. “The Karnataka results prove that people will never tolerate corruption. As the Congress waged a relentless battle against deep-rooted corruption of the BJP government, voters unequivocally backed the party. In our State too, the same result is going to be repeated in 2014,” predicted Botcha.
Taking an indirect dig at the YSRC, he said people never endorse corruption and embezzlement of public money. “People always condemn corruption and back welfare schemes. As our government is trying to root out corruption in the State and is implementing welfare programmes with utmost commitment, I am sure our party will hit a hat-trick,” Botcha said.
According to him, the just-concluded Karnataka polls also proved that sentiment never helps a party at the hustings. “Any sort of sentiment never stays for long. So, those parties which are purely banking on sentiment and emotions will be disappointed in 2014,” he said, adding that the YSRC’s dream of coming to power will never be fulfilled.
The TDP, on its part, gave an altogether different interpretation.
Agreeing with Botcha that Karnataka voters gave their mandate against corruption, TDP politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, however, felt the results indicate an impending electoral drubbing for the ruling Congress, “which is also facing massive corruption charges”.
TDP leader E Peddi Reddy said the Karnataka results showed that sentiment would not work. In an oblique reference to the YSRC, Reddy recalled that the BSR Congress Party, set up by B Sriramulu to bank on the sentiment factor, had ended as a damp squib in the Karnataka. The YSRC will also meet with the same fate, he said.
On the other hand, the YSRC said people of the State were eager to vote for Jagan as they believe he would bring back the “golden regime” of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Trashing the argument of the Congress and the TDP that the YSRC would meet with the same fate as the BSRC, party MLA B Shobha Nagi Reddy challenged both parties to hold bypolls to all the 18 Assembly segments, whose representatives violated the whip of their respective parties during the recent no-trust motion, if they had the guts.
