Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Jan 18: In a candid admission of his party's intentions to conjure up majority in the state assembly, BJP general secretary, C T Ravi, expressed his opinion that his party is right in adding fuel to the fire of internal differences affecting his party rivals, Congress and JD(S), which are ruling the state. He said that he finds no fault in the party's attempt to make the best use of the situation at hand.
He said that parties having numbers in their favour run the governments. However, he clarified, that if there is internal bickering, his party will make an effort to take advantage of the situation. Addressing a press meet on Thursday January 17, Ravi said it would be wrong for the coalition partners to accuse his party if their own legislators’ express disgruntlement and show disobedience.
Ravi felt that legitimately his party was entitled to rule the state, and not the Congress-JD(S) coalition. "We are here to do politics, not for charity," he added. To support his notion, Ravi also pointed out at certain past instances where JD(S) and Congress had plotted defections from his party.
On the accusation of horse trading, he wanted to know whether the then deputy chief minister and leader of JD(S) legislature party in 2005-06, Siddaramaiah, had left JD(S) and joined Congress as a result of auction. He wanted to know what price Siddaramaiah had paid to MLAs close to him belonging to JD(S) when they cross-voted in favour of Congress party. He asked Deve Gowda, Karnataka chief minister in 1994, as to how he allowed seven KCP members to cross over to his side. "Was it a wholesale deal when seven JD(S) MLAs joined Congress in 1999?" he wanted to know.
He also pointed out that minister, B Z Zameer Khan, had driven a bus containing some dissident BJP legislators in 2010. He said Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar had played the roles of conductor and taffic controller then and questioned these leaders whether what they did was honourable. He chided the leaders of Congress and JD(S) for finding fault with others when they do something which these leaders have always been doing.