No chance of hung assembly in Karnataka, Modi tells workers
BENGALURU: Interacting with party workers in the state through video conference ahead o f the May 12 assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that there was a conspiracy afoot to play down the wave for change by publishing opinion polls that predicted a hung assembly in the upcoming polls.
“During my visits to the state I have seen the yearning for change, but people close to the Congress have started propagating a lie that there will be a hung assembly this time,” Modi said. “This is similar to 2014, when till the results came they kept saying it will be hung assembly.”
The prime minister appealed to party workers to keep asking the people to vote en masse for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ensure that it got a majority. “This conspiracy of hung assembly is being spread to mislead the people, who have seen the developmental work of the central government and want to join this.”
Modi said the one aspect where no party could defeat the BJP was its organsational strength. He said now that the battle lines had been drawn, it was duty of booth-level workers to visit each and every voter and get the party’s message across.
“Our strategy is prepared using the knowledge of boothlevel workers, but the Congress battles on the basis of wealth, lies, dynastic politics and by spreading casteism. We take the country forward by bringing people together under the slogan of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas,” he said.
The prime minister said the BJP had only one aim and that was development, but the Congress, he said, based its strategy on divisiveness. “Every election they offer lollipops [sops] to one community, which then votes emotionally. In the next election they turn their attention to another community, forgetting the earlier one,” he said.
“If other parties are indulging in this kind of politics it is because of the Congress. Till we uproot the Congress mindset we cannot hope for change,” Modi said. According to him, while earlier the Congress mixed in about five lies in a list of 50 promises, that number had now increased to 45. “You have to fight against this attempt to spread lies. Foreign companies will be hired to misguide you, and at such a moment, workers should not waver. We must move ahead on the basis of our work,” warned Modi.
With 15 days left for the polls, Modi said it was time that every party worker was given about 10 families to visit.
“Every worker should be given a list of families they should be in touch with, and they should be in touch with those families till the day of voting.”
The Congress, however, termed Modi’s statements as false and baseless. “It is not acceptable for the Prime Minister to not have the command on facts. If anything it is the BJP that is desperate to project this as a close race, because the Congress will win a resounding victory in the elections,” party leader Rajeev Gowda said.
He added that polarisation was the policy that the BJP had followed and it would rely on this once again in Karnataka in its desperation.
“The Prime Minister is stooping to levels that were previously unheard of. In their desperation for a victory they have even brought back the Reddy brothers,” he said.