LEADERS SPEAK
The Congress used all its power to defeat Ambedkar when he contested Lok Sabha election in 1952… Let Congress show at least one thing it did to honour Baba Saheb Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister We can lose elections but can't sit with Social Democratic Party of India & Popular Front of India. Cong takes support of SDPI & PFI to win elections & that's the difference between them & BJP. Amit Shah, BJP
president My mother is an Italian by birth. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen Rahul Gandhi,
Congress president, responding to PM’s earlier remark The victory in Karnataka will be a stepping stone to several forthcoming victories including the general election in 2019. Siddaramaiah,
Karnataka chief minister
NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, three chief ministers, 19 Union ministers and 12 other senior leaders of the party descended on Karnataka on Thursday with 53 road shows on the last day of campaigning for the May 12 assembly polls.
“Road shows are also organised in 130 more constituencies involving state leaders,” a BJP leader said asking not to be named. It was the party’s final push ahead of the vote for the 224member Karnataka assembly.
The results will be declared on May 15. A party needs 113 seats for a majority, but several opinion polls have predicted a hung house. Thursday’s mobilisation was aimed at creating a buzz around the party that is hopeful of wresting the southern state from the Congress after five years and holding off a challenge from the Janata Dal (Secular).
Modi held 21 rallies between May 1 and 9, and BJP leaders say his tour of the state boosted the chances of victory for the BJP candidates.
The last-day blitz was planned to consolidate the party’s hold over traditional voters, and swing in its favour those who hadn’t made up their minds.
Shah held a road show in Badami, Bagalkot district, in north Karnataka, from where chief minister Siddaramaiah is contesting. The BJP has fielded its tribal face B Sriramulu against Siddaramaiah in Badami. The chief minister is also contesting from Chamundeshwari.
Badami was decked in saffron on Thursday with BJP flags fluttering all along the city’s roads.
Heaps of saffron colour marigold flowers were splashed on a bus converted to look like a chariot that carried Shah, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa and its Badami candidate Sriramulu.
“The writing on the wall is clear...It’s time for BJP with absolute majority in Karnataka,” Shah wrote on Twitter, sharing a picture of a differentlyabled person at the Badami road show.
In the past four months, Shah has travelled about 48,000 km to touch 117 assembly segments through public meetings and 22 road shows. Four hundred and fifty kilometres away from Badami, Union minister Ananth Kumar held five road shows during the day in and around state capital Bengaluru.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh led five separate road shows in the state capital. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was in Mysuru. Prominent among Union ministers who campaigned in the state on Thursday were defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, railway minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, commerce and industries minister Suresh Prabhu. Others included DV Sadananda Gowda, Anantkumar Hegde (both from Karnataka), Himachal Pradesh MP Anurag Thakur and singer-politician Manoj Tiwari.