All four States and the Union Territory going to the polls will see a change of government because of the incumbents' “misgovernance, corruption and price rise,” former Bharatiya Janata Party president Venkiah Naidu said here on Monday.
Mr. Naidu, who began a four-day campaign in the State, said he had Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and could perceive the anger of people against not only the State governments but also the Centre.
After the elections, “the very stability or even survival of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre will become a question mark.”
He was confident that the BJP would enter all these State Assemblies, “on its own.”
He slammed the “competitive populism” of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in offering freebies.
“If you have attended to basic requirements of people such as power, roads, drinking water, water for irrigation, education, health and employment and, of course food, then I have no objection in you giving any freebies. But, even 60 years after Independence, none of these requirements has been fulfilled. Hence, the freebies are nothing but deception, indirect corruption and allurement.”
To a question on various charges of scams the UPA government is facing, Mr. Naidu said that inquiry into many of them were on only because of pressure from the BJP and the combined Opposition and the Supreme Court. “But, how long can the Supreme Court keep on monitoring such scandals?” Though the Prime Minister had promised that he would act on the Shunglu Committee report that probed the Commonwealth Games scandal, he was keeping mum despite the report indicting various persons, including some top Congress leaders and the Sports Ministry itself. “This reveals the lack of sincerity of the UPA.”
