Eshwarappa’s counter: Ready for polls

[1]

Pre-empting any move by former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s to topple the government, BJP state president K.S. Eshwarappa on Friday said, “The party is ready for elections.”

The message is significant as Mr Yeddyurappa is allegedly making moves to bring down the government if he is not offered the chief minister’s post in the immediate future. In a not-so-subtle message, Mr Eshwarappa made it clear that the party is ready to face any challenge Mr Yeddyurappa would throw.

Speaking to reporters on Palace Grounds, where he offered a pooja for installing a dais for the party women’s wing rally on March 31, Mr Eshwarappa first said the country could face mid-term Lok Sabha elections any time. “The party is leaving nothing to chance,” he said, adding that the party cadre is ready for the assembly elections too.

“The party is planning to hold rallies of different morchas. After the rallies by women’s, youth’s and Dalits’ wings, a grand rally will be held in the City on May 26. We are planning to mobilise five lakh people for the rally. The rallies are being organised to prepare ourselves for the possibility of elections," he said.

In a loaded message, Mr Eshwarappa said the party aims to come back to power and give an administration “free of controversies”, obliquely referring to the governance of the state under Mr Yeddyurappa’s rule. But he was confident that the BJP government that has completed four years in office would run till the end of its term. “We have given good governance and we will fight elections on this plank.”

Mr Eshwarappa said Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda will present the budget on March 21. But Mr Yeddyurappa has been pressuring the party central leaders to anoint him as chief minister before the budget, allowing him to present the budget.

Taking a dig at Mr Dhananjay Kumar, who is a party leader and Karnataka representative in New Delhi, and others who refuse to acknowledge that Mr Gowda would present the budget, he said, “I don’t know why Mr Dhananjay Kumar issued such a statement; he is not even a party spokesperson."