ENS

Bangalore, Aug 21: Unperturbed by the criticism from political opponents, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa defended the ‘poaching’ of opposition MLAs and said that the conspiracy to destabilise his government within weeks of its formation prompted the party to take such an extreme step.

Addressing the BJP state executive committee meeting here on Tuesday, Yeddyurappa said a conspiracy was hatched by the political opponents to destabilise the BJP government as it was formed with outside support.

To prevent these evil designs by those rejected by the people, the party decided to induct some opposition MLAs to save the government. "I don’t see anything wrong in it," he said, adding that the party would not have indulged in such things if it had got the majority.

Terming the decision of opposition MLAs to resign their Assembly membership to join the saffron brigade a ‘brave’ one, Yeddyurappa asked the party cadre to respect those defectors as they put their political career to test to help the government.

He said that his government had fulfilled 90 per cent of the promises made by the party in its poll manifesto and about one crore people would benefit by the programmes announced by the government.

Calling upon workers to ensure that welfare programmes reached the real beneficiaries, he cautioned them to beware of middlemen who were fleecing money from beneficiaries.

He said that he had instructed all taluk level officers to visit hoblis in their respective jurisdictions every week to address the problems of the people.

"Our ministers, MLAs and leaders should be present in such meetings on a regular basis and ensure that all applications are attended on time," he said.

He also cautioned workers not be complacent. "You have an uphill task of ensuring victory to the party in at least 22-23 Parliamentary segments in the coming Lok Sabha elections," he added.

Taking opposition parties to task for criticising the government on every issue, Yeddyurappa said that they should learn the virtue of patience.