HONNAVAR (UTTARA KANNADA): Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan on Wednesday played down opposition’s criticism of the BJP, which was handed a crushing a defeat by AAP in the Delhi elections on Tuesday. The DCM said that the Delhi result will not have any impact on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and is not a sign of the PM losing his popularity.
After inaugurating the Vokkaliga Samudaya Bhavan at Kelaginuru village near Honnavar in Uttara Kannada district, along with Swami Nirmalananda - the pontiff of Adi Chunchanagiri Math, he said that elections to a state assembly or local bodies are contested on local issues.
“How can you compare national issues with Delhi local issues? Can we take national issues to win Bengaluru local body elections,” he said, pointing out that even during the election campaign, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal never made a single statement against Modi. On talks of third front revival, he said, “Now all these fronts are gone. Even today, 75-80 per cent of the people support Modi,” he said.
Asked about the sulking new ministers in the BS Yediyurappa cabinet, he admitted that some of the ministers are unhappy, but quickly added that the chief minister will handle them. On opposition parties criticising the state government for not settling down and carrying out its business, the DCM targeted former CM HD Kumaraswamy, saying there was no progress in the state during the previous coalition government.
“We have taken over the reins of the state just a few months ago. We will deliver and the opposition should not have any doubts regarding the completion of our term. We will definitely complete our term of three years and three months,” he said.
On the recent statement of Yediyurappa that the number of deputy chief ministers will be reduced as it was not a good experiment for governance, Ashwath said that five months are too short to gauge the performance of a deputy chief minister.
Congress suffers from electoral bankruptcy: BJP leader
Bengaluru: BJP state general secretary and MLC N Ravi Kumar on Wednesday hit out at the Congress for gloating over the AAP’s victory in Delhi elections when 67 of its own candidates have lost deposit in the polls. “The party suffers from electoral bankruptcy,” Ravi Kumar told mediapersons. No political party would yield electoral base to other parties without a pre-poll alliance, but the Congress ran away from the battlefield and that shows pathetic state of affairs of the 130-year old party, he said.
“It is ridiculous and laughable that Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao claim that they have achieved a great victory when they just managed to increase their number by one seat,” he said.