BENGALURU: BJP conducted its ‘Sakti Sangama’ convention, where members of 24 different cells of the party attended on Sunday at the Palace Grounds. Top leaders from the party, including Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, party national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, put up a united front at the convention.
The event, the brainchild of Santhosh, gave a clear message that the party is supreme and there is no scope for dynasty politics. Yediyurappa asked the new generation of leaders and workers to recall the days when the party had a mere two seats, and built itself to what it’s today.
General Secretary CT Ravi asked the participants to hail PMNarendra Modi, but the crowd chanted Yediyrappa’s name. “Given the enthusiasm of party workers, BJP’s win here is assured. Karnataka was a milking cow for Congress before 2014 as it gave a mere Rs 834 crore for the Railways. Modi has granted Rs 6,091 crore,” Vaishnaw said. He felt taking the Datta Peetha issue to its logical end and a hike in SC/ST quota will be a game changer.
On the suburban rail project in Bengaluru, he said land acquisition is on and will be completed soon. “We won’t spend Rs 250-300 crore/km like in most modern projects, but it will be taken up at Rs 70-80 crore through innovation of our engineering staff.”
On Vande Bharat Express, he said the tracks will be designed to run the trains at 160 kmph gradually. “The Railways is covering the lost ground in freight transport that had been lost to road transport. Hydrogen-powered trains will roll out by next year,” he said. On former BJP minister Suresh Kumar’s letter on children falling victim to gaming addiction, he said, “The Centre will come up with a new law as many states had expressed concerns.”
Yediyurappa said if Congress is defeated in the coming polls, it will bite the dust in the entire country as the surveys indicated that 70% of the people of the country have favoured Modi.