Comments
Justifying his party’s moves in Karnataka after the Assembly elections, BJP supremo Amit Shah said on Monday that had the MLAs of Congress and the JD(S) were in touch with the people after the announcement of results, they would have supported BS Yeddyurappa to continue as Chief Minister.
He said the Congress and the JD(S) could not hold even a victory rally as people were for the formation of a BJP government in the State. “Congress kept its MLAs in five star hotels to ensure that they are not in touch with the voters in their constituencies. If these MLAs were free to talk to people, they would have known that the voters favoured a BJP government,” Shah told reporters and added that the step by the Congress was an unconstitutional act.
He said the Congress had used Article 356 of the Constitution for more than 50 occasions to dismiss elected governments.
Congress hits back
The Congress, however, laughed at Shah’s comments. “Congress MLAs will be with Congress. They are not supposed to stay at the BJP office,” senior Congress MP Anand Sharma said. He said the party kept the MLAs in safe custody to insulate them from the poaching attempts by the BJP.
Shah differentiated the developments in Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya and Karnataka and said in the other States, the Congress, though was the single largest party, had not claimed to form the government. “We did not sit idle like the Congress and we staked claim to form the government,” he said.
In Karnataka, he said the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court’s directions and decided to step down without waiting for the trust vote to take place.
‘No horse-trading’
Shah also said that the Congress has found a new way of portraying defeat as its victory. “Only Congress and JD(S) are celebrating, people of Karnataka are not (celebrating),” he said. “The mandate given by people of Karnataka was against the Congress. There was no confusion about it,” he added.
He said the BJP did not indulge in horse-trading. “If we had not staked claim to form government, it would have been against the mandate of Karnataka people,” he said. “Congress is now starting to have faith in constitutional bodies like Supreme Court, Election Commission and they even like EVMs,” Shah said.
Sharma said the BJP’s double standards, misuse of power and hunger for power were revealed in Karnataka. “They used all powers and misused official agencies in Karnataka,” he said.
Sharma said the Congress expected the BJP to seek apologies from the people for whatever happened in Karnataka. “But he is so thick-skinned and shameless and that was why he said the results of the trust vote would have been different if the MLAs were not kept in the hotels,” Sharma said.
He termed the BJP President statement that they did not try for horse-trading as a joke. “Everyone knows who has money. Everyone knows who spent cores of rupees for advertisements during the elections. Everyone knows who has the biggest party office in the world,” Sharma said. He said the people of the country understood the double standards of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP President after the Karnataka polls.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.