Allaying doubts over the survival of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka after the Lok Sabha elections, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said the coalition government will remain strong after the elections.
Interacting with reporters at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by Bangalore Reporters’ Guild and the Press Club of Bangalore on Monday, he said, “Looking at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s futile efforts to take out the government, it is clear the HD Kumaraswamy government will complete its term”.
On the BJP’s attempts to poach into Congress ranks, Siddaramaiah said, “People committed to principles will not desert the party. It is only people who have no belief in democracy or those having no ideological base that do party-hopping.”
Modi will not be PM
“The BJP will not win. Modi will not be Prime Minister again,” said Siddaramaiah. “The BJP cannot repeat its stellar performance in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Gujarat again as it did in the previous Lok Sabha elections.”
“Looking at the regional pre-election alliance and the possibility of post-election tie-ups like the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in UP and Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress tie-up in Bihar, the saffron party will be trounced this time,” he added.
No lesson learnt
Taking a dig at the campaigns initiated by the BJP in the last six months, Siddaramaiah said that without learning the lessons from the past, they are again talking of ‘acche din’ and chowkidar .
“I just want to remind them of what happened to the famous ‘India Shining’ during Vajpayee rule.
“They got defeated by anti-poor policies I don't know where it shined. If it had really shone, there was no need for any welfare schemes.”
Siddaramaiah said the BJP leaders, without looking at the Congress’ track record of serving the poor, are criciticsing and are slamming our poll promise of Minimum Income Guarantee Scheme (Nyunatam Aay Yojana-NYAY) that will cost ₹3.26 lakh crore to the national exchequer.
“They mock our scheme of giving ₹3.5 lakh crore to the poor people and speak low about it. The very fact that they are opposing this programme, they are anti-poor. They cannot stand with the economically weaker sections. There are no such instances whether be it former prime minister Vajpayee or Modi's five-year term,” Siddaramaiah said .