The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not tolerate the “non-performing” Congress government in the State and aims to free Karnataka from it, said party General Secretary in charge of Karnataka affairs P. Muralidhar Rao on Monday. The government should perform or go, he told reporters here.
Outlining the party’s strategy in general and in Karnataka in particular, Mr. Rao said, “After the BJP’s victory in Maharashtra and Haryana, the important State that is feeding Congress in its corrupt politics is Karnataka. The party’s objective is how to free Karnataka from Congress.”
To this end, the party will hold a massive protest in Belagavi on December 9 when the State legislature begins its session, he said. When asked about tainted leaders in the party in Karnataka, Mr. Rao said those facing charges but not convicted by a court of law could not be called tainted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi regularly sets up benchmarks and reviews the situation, he said.
About the current membership drive until March 31, he said the party was aggressively consolidating its position across regions, including in Karnataka. It was aimed at making BJP the world’s largest political party by March 31, overtaking the Communist Party of China. About one crore members had been enrolled, he said.
The party is focusing on strengthening its base in the south — Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala — and the north east, including West Bengal. It has introduced easy membership enrolment through the web, and each new member’s credentials would be physically verified after March 31.
To another question on the Congress charges against the NDA government, Mr. Rao said the Congress still had a lot to learn as an opposition party. If it stalls passage of important bills in the Rajya Sabha where it has the numbers, people would throw it out from there too, as in the Lok Sabha, he said.
