Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari today advised Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to ignore the criticism of opposition parties and focus on his “good work”. “You are doing a good job and just fix your goals and go ahead,” he told him at a function, here.
Delivering the keynote address at the 94th annual general meeting of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), he said the BJP government under the leadership of Yeddyurappa has done some wonderful programmes and it should continue with them.
He lauded some of the achievements of the state government like presenting a separate budget for agriculture, introducing the 1 per cent interest rate on farm loans, global investors’ meet to attract industrial investment and promoting cultivation of Jatropha trees to produce bio-diesel among others.
Later, he told reporters, he has advised Yeddyurappa to drop the idea of taking the “truth test” at Dharmasthala on the issue of an alleged compromise between himself and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. “I have told the chief minister, it was not a right move to bring politics into religious places like temples.” He said Kumaraswamy has been making allegations against the chief minister out of frustration and added: “We will fight political issues in a political and legal way.”
Yeddyurappa had challenged JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy about a week ago to face the test of truth at Dharmasthala for making various allegations. Kumaraswamy had accepted the challenge.
The chief minister has been facing serious corruption charges from the Opposition parties, notably the JD(S) over the last year, accusing him of various illegal deals like land denotification and nepotism.
Yeddyurappa has been under attack not only from the Opposition but also from within the BJP itself for his style of functioning. The anti-Yeddyurappa members of the BJP have made several representations to the party high command seeking redressal of their grievances, but have stopped short of asking for a leadership change.