Mangalore: Forgive us for what we have done in the past - BJP chief Prahlad Joshi
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (DV)
Mangalore, Mar 29: The BJP launched its poll campaign for the upcoming state Assembly elections with much fanfare during 'Vijaya Sankalpa Samevesha' a convention of party leaders and workers at Nehru Maidan here on Friday March 29.
The main speaker, BJP state president Prahlad Joshi took digs and Congress while also listing out BJP government's achievments in the last five years.
Claiming that BJP government had released Rs 200 crore for each city corporation while the earlier Congress government never did so, he said, "The Congress is like a bunch of magicians that swallows up money meant for projects."
"For the last five years, Rs 6 lac crore has been wasted on various scams like chopper deal, farmers debt waiver scam, CWG, Adarsh, and others," he pointed out, adding, "When D V Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar could waive debts for farmers, why can't the UPA do so too?"
He also said that during the entire regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the issue of price rise never cropped up in the Parliament for a single day.
Speaking on Karnataka politics, he said Shettar, Sadananda Gowda, Eshwarappa, R Ashok and Ananth Kumar are the 'pancha pandavas' of the Karnataka government and the party workers are the 'sarathis' of the chariot.
"I know people have pain and confusion in their minds because of allegations of corruption during the first part of our regime, but this time we seek votes in the name of development. We ask forgiveness for what we have done in the past and urge people to vote for us, while also promising that such mistakes will not happen again," Joshi said.
"We should win this election and also make Narendra Modi our PM and thereby increase development by four folds," he added.
Referring to the coal scam of the UPA, he said the Congress-led UPA government has provided licences to private companies with permission letters from Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, without auctioning for them. "How much coal have you (UPA) given to Karnataka?" he questioned.
On Commonweath Games scam, he said that it was during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime during 2003 that it was first planned to hold the Games in India, and for which the NDA government had allocated Rs 20,000 crore but when the Games were hosted by the UPA later on, the cost came up to Rs 80,000 crore as even the ropes and tiles were imported from foreign countries.
"Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought fame to the country by conducting Pokhran nuclear test without bothering about the US, but Manmohan Singh's government has brought only shame to the nation," he said.
He also referred to the Italian marines issue and said that Congress has special love towards Italy and it was because of the stern stand by the Supreme Court and not the UPA that the marines came back for trial.
"Manmohan Singh is 'Maun Mohan', while Montek Singh Ahluwalia gives bizarre statements such as a person who owns more than 34.10 paise is not poor. The samosa he eats would itself cost Rs 150," he said.
"During Vajpayee's rule 20 km of road was constructed per day, but the Congress cannot construct even 2 km of road in a month," he said.
Home minister R Ashok called upon the BJP workers to visit each and every house during the election campaign.
Taking potshots at the state Congress, he said presently all Congress leaders were in Delhi hotels fighting or tickets. "To become a leader in JD(S), they need the blessings of father and son (Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy), in Congress they need influence with the Gandhi family, but in BJP there is no such thing. Prahlad Joshi is a common BJP activist who has today become the BJP state president," he said.
"State government has done number of good developmental works. The facilities in transportation system has changed, and the number of buses have increased. Congress could not establish a commissioner's office in the city, but the BJP has done that," he said.
Open challenge to Janardhan Poojary
D V Sadananda Gowda in his address openly challenged Congress leader Janardhan Poojary to list out the achievements of Congress in the last 50 years as against the achivements of BJP in five years. He said any leader of BJP can confront any Congress leader on this point.
Batting for Narendra Modi's candidature as PM, he said, "People are expecting development with Gujarat as the model. Under Modi's leadership we can do this."
"Earlier the state budget was Rs 34,000 crore but it was increased to Rs 1.15 lac crore by us. This is the achievement of BJP," he added.
"We have achieved so much but unfortunately people talk about corruption and internal conflicts in the party. We know that our workers are pained by certain developments. In the first three years during BJP regime (under Yeddyurappa) there was cry of corruption and confusion, but later in the last two years during mine and Jagadish Shettar's regimes there was not a single case of corruption," he said, adding that the state saw only development under him and Shettar.
"The state's Sakala intiative was even discussed in the Parliament and a central team had come to study it. If people give us opportunity we will surely turn Karnataka into a fully developed state," he said.
Referring to Congress, he said presently Siddaramaiah and Parameshwar groups are in Delhi fighting for tickets."The debt waiver scam of the UPA proves that the central government is not in favour of farmers. There is no respect for women in Delhi, and soldiers are beheaded in Kashmir but the centre is not bothered, instead it is still holding free talks with Pakistan," he said.
On the occasion, Nagaraj Shetty, Kutharguttu Chandrahas Adyantaya, Dinesh Kayarmar, Akbar Badshah Suralpady, Narasimha Hegde, Preetham Shetty, Siddu and Nonaiah joined BJP.
Nagaraj Shetty said that from past 43 years he has been a member of Sangh Parivar and he was happy to join his 'mother party' back. "For clean democratic rule, we need Narendra Modi as our PM," he said.
Nalin Kumar Kateel said that with the blessings of Mysore’s Goddess Chamundeshwari, this Vijaya Sankalpa Samevesha had kicked off. “The BJP government is giving importance to ideology. The good relationship between Kannadigas and Tamilians was increased by installing the statute of Sarvajna in Tamil Nadu and Tiruvalar in Karnataka. When the problem arose in Belgaum we established a Vidhana Soudha there. The BJP has undertaken several development projects but Congress has only looted the state. Kota Srinivas Poojary said rightly that what the Congress has not done in 60 years, the BJP has done in five years. The state government has increased pension rates, increased the salary of librarians, and ‘D’ category workers. A subsidy of Rs 75,000 to build houses has been given to the common man,” he added.
Devadas Shetty compered while Padmanabha Kottary welcomed the gathering.
Yogish Bhat, Krishna J Palemar, Mallika Prasad, Angara, Sulochana Bhat, Capt Ganesh Karnik, Monappa Bhandary, Rukmayya Poojary, Gangadhar Gowda, Bakila Ugrappa, Balakrishna Bhat, Koragappa Naik, Pratap Simha Nayak and others were present.