Mumbai: Criticising BJP for projecting Narendra Modi as a secular leader while campaigning for Karnataka Assembly elections, NDA ally Shiv Sena on Sunday said the part would have won, if it had projected the Gujarat Chief Minister as an outright Hindutva leader.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “If we would have projected Narendra Modi as an outright Hindutva leader, we would have perhaps won in Karnataka.”
Raut further said, “Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and corruption were not issues in Karnataka. Congress is the most corrupt party and yet the people of Karnataka voted them to power. The reason for this is the lack of difference between the Congress and the BJP. Perhaps a miracle would have taken place in Karnataka if the BJP had gone ahead with our Hindutva agenda.”
Capitalising on anti-incumbency, Congress unseated the BJP in the Karnataka Assembly elections, winning 121 seats in the 224-member House. Karnataka Janata Paksha chief BS Yeddyurappa, who in May 2008 was the toast of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after leading the party to power in Karnataka, is now seen as the man who single-handedly responsible for the massive rout the party suffered in the 2013 Assembly elections.
Even though Yeddyurappa won from Shikaripura by over 15,000 votes, his party was doing well in only a few seats. But his party has hit the BJP hard in several constituencies with caste playing a major role as the Lingayat community to which Yeddyurappa belongs deserting the saffron party.
In the 2008 Assembly elections the BJP won 110 seats, Congress 80, JDS 28 and independent and smaller parties bagged six. But five years later the Congress is well on its way to secure majority on its own with the JDS and the BJP fighting for the second spot.
