MYSURU: The BJP, having tasted defeat in the assembly elections, plans to bounce back in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and panchayat polls, and turn the tables against the Congress by playing up lapses in the execution of guarantee schemes assured to the people in the run-up to the election.
The BJP, which wanted to popularise the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nine-year rule, now plans to go door-to-door to know the people’s reaction on the guarantees. It will list out the lapses of the Congress, that sought votes on the basis of the schemes, and will also bring up its past mistakes.
BJP leaders are keen to hear out party workers on the assembly election defeat, and boost their morale ahead of Lok Sabha polls. “BJP leaders are defeated and not workers. We have lost but not lost hope,” said BJP leader Ashwath Narayan. He said the BJP, which has seen its worst-ever performance in the past with just two MPs, has won more than 300 MP seats and is ruling in a majority of states in the country. It is time to win back all Lok Sabha seats to prove the defeat in Karnataka was by chance, he added.
Former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda said overconfidence and a failure to rework its strategy to counter anti-incumbency, ended in defeat for the BJP. He said they are not so worried about the party’s defeat than being upset that people have elected the Congress, that has failed to deliver on its promises.
Hailing PM Modi for leading the world on International Day of Yoga, he said BJP should not rest until Modi returns with a landslide majority in the Lok sabha election for a third term.
Disputing the Congress charge that the Union government is playing vendetta politics, denying rice for the Anna Bhagya scheme, Gowda said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has presented 13 budgets, should know that “he can’t grow paddy by presenting the budget.”
Leaders should think before making big announcements of giving 10kg of free rice. The Centre has not denied rice only to Karnataka but to other states too, in the interest of food security and due to the delayed monsoon. He maintained that the Centre took the policy decision much before Karnataka announced its scheme.
Clarifying that state BJP leaders are not doing cheap politics by prevailing on the Centre to deny the state rice, he said their concern is for the poor and hungry. The BJP is likely to appoint effective opposition leaders to corner CM Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar.