The Bharatiya Janata Party and its rival political outfit, the Karnataka Janata Paksha, on Thursday came out with contrast interpretations on BJP leader Narendra Modi steering the party to victory for the third consecutive time in Gujarat.
While BJP State unit president K.S. Eshwarappa termed it as an indication that people of Karnataka too would back the party in the coming Assembly elections, KJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa said Gujarat poll victory had sent clear signals that people would back only regional parties like the KJP by dumping national parties. He described the Gujarat poll victory as a “victory achieved by Mr. Modi due to his personal charisma and not a victory of the BJP.”
Congratulating Mr. Modi on the victory, Mr. Eshwarappa expressed confidence that people of Karnataka too would back the BJP in the Assembly polls.
In a release, Mr. Eshwarappa said: “The people of Gujarat have endorsed the leadership of Mr. Modi who campaigned by focussing on a development agenda. The BJP government in Karnataka too has delivered good administration in the last four-and-half years with a focus on development. We believe that people of Karnataka will again support the pro-development dispensation of the BJP in the coming Assembly elections.”
Mr. Eshwarappa said Mr. Modi’s poll victory would give a new direction to the country’s politics in the coming days.
However, KJP president Yeddyurappa told mediapersons that people of Gujarat had considered Mr. Modi as a strong leader of a regional party and backed him impressed by his development agenda. He predicted that similar thing would happen in Karnataka with people of the State supporting his regional political outfit of KJP.
He said the days of the national parties were over and that people were now looking at the regional parties to put their States on a fast track of development.
Victory procession
Meanwhile, the BJP took out a bike rally of its workers n the main streets of Bangalore to celebrate the victory of Mr. Modi.
The rally was taken out from Town Hall to its State office in Malleswaram. Such was the confidence of the party about Mr. Modi’s victory that they had sent press releases to media houses on the eve of the poll verdict itself stating that they would take out a victory procession.
The BJP workers in different parts of the State burst crackers and distributed sweets.
