The Hindu

‘Congress scared of public opinion going in BJP’s favour’

Udupi, Feb 22: D V Sadananda Gowda, president of the State unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Thursday that the Congress party was trying to delay the Assembly elections in the State.

Addressing presspersons here, Gowda said that even after President Pratibha Patil gave her assent to the notification for the implementation of delimitation of constituencies, the Union Government was not forwarding it to the Election Commission. The Congress party was chastened by the results of the elections in north India. “The Congress is frightened by the public opinion in favour of the BJP in Karnataka,” he said.

A delegation of the BJP leaders had urged the Election Commission in New Delhi recently to hold the elections in the State, as soon as possible. The BJP leaders, in five teams, would be touring the State to make the people aware of the Congress’s designs. “We will approach the Supreme Court if the polls are delayed,” he said.

Karnataka had become a den for terrorists. But the Congress leaders, including KPCC president Mallikarjuna Kharge and MP B Janardhan Poojary, were advocating a soft line towards them. When the State police were doing a good job in tracking down the terrorists, the Congress had made a demand for transferring the case to the CBI. “The drive against terrorists should not be stopped”, he said.

Former Minister D H Shankaramurthy said that Governor Rameshwar Thakur was not showing interest in implementing the budget of the Karnataka Development Front Government.

BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje, R Ashok, V S Acharya, Raghupati Bhat, Lalaji Mendan, Sunil Kumar, and Kota Srinivas Poojary, were present.

Later they participated in the BJP workers’ convention here.