Pics: Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Jan 10: Former deputy chief minister R Ashok on Saturday January 10 said that BJP has been organizing membership drives throughout the state under the leadership of its national president Amit Shah and soon even Karnataka will be made Congress-free.

Addressing a press meet at the BJP office here during his visit to the city, Ashok said, "Membership drives are being taken up throughout India under the leadership of Amit Shah in order to make BJP the world's largest organization. Almost all states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Haryana have been freed from Congress. Even Karnataka will be made Congress-free, and hence this membership drive has been taken up here.

"Already 18 lac people have joined BJP in Karnataka. In India, the state presently stands in the 7th position as far as number of BJP members are concerned. Within the next 10 days, we aim to increase this number to 23 lac, and then Karnataka will stand in the second place. All the state leaders are involved in this campaign," he said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bringing a revolutionary change in the union government. This membership drive will also help in informing people about the revolutionary changes. We have a target of having 50,000 members in each assembly constituency. In Dakshina Kannada, we have already crossed one lac memberships," he added.

Alleging that the state Congress government had failed in controlling the drug mafia, he said, "Mangaluru is a sensitive area. From past two years, ever since the Congress government came to power, drug mafia has become rampant here. The entire state and the district witnessed the murder of BJP activist Keshava Shetty which was due to the drug mafia. The entire state lives in fear, and police are not in a position to take necessary action."

Commenting on terrorist activities and arrest of suspected IS twitter handler Mehdi Masroor Biswas in Bengaluru, Ashok said, "The Bengaluru CCB arrested Mehdi, and immediately the government transferred the joint commissioner of investigating (crime) Hemanth Nimbalkar. Mehdi has 2,500 followers and he is also involved with the ISIS. Though this is known, no action has been taken to trace his followers and those who helped him financially. There is no prorgress in the case.

"The Congress govt is showing soft corner towards terrorist activities. The governemnt is also appeasing minorities. Hence law and order is going out of control. Rape and rowdism have increased due to failure of law and order. From the past two years it has been a complete failure," he added.

"The Congress government has withdrawn whatever the previous BJP government had proposed, like the anti-cow slaughter bill. Even regarding the bill on government control of Maths and temples, though the government has withdrawn it, it is looking for a backdoor means to enforce the bill," he claimed.

"The state government is functioning like the Tughlaq administration. It is not on track. No minister is in CM's control. Though the speaker corrects the mistakes of the government, a minister calls him autocratic and alleges that he is in favour of the opposition," he added.

Asked to comment on the decrease in bus fares, he said, "During the BJP regime, free bus passes were given to school children from 1st to 7st standards. Though petrol prices increased that time, we did not hike the bus fares. The transport department is for the service of people. We should not think of profit and loss."