Exuding confidence that the BJP will form the next government in Karnataka, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday that people will vote the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government out of power for its divide-and-rule policy and cases of corruption.
"In Karnataka we have a very favourable atmosphere. People are fed up with the Congress government. They will throw Siddaramaiah and Congress government out of power because of its inefficiency and absence of development and to top it all, this government's every scheme has become a corruption scheme," Javadekar told reporters.
Javadekar, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in-charge for the Karnataka Assembly elections, also rejected claims that this time it would be a hung assembly in the state.
"We have a strong team and are getting people's support in even bastions of Congress and Janata Dal-Secular. We are all united and working as a team and therefore we will register a massive victory. It will not be a hung assembly but a decisive verdict in the favour of BJP," he said.
Assembly elections in Karnataka will be held in 2018 to elect a new 224-member House.
Claiming that there was a huge anti-incumbency wave against the Siddaramaiah government, he said: "People are very angry and there is tremendous anti-incumbency. Karnataka people are industrious (by nature) but they are not getting their due.
"The Congress government's policy is to divide and our's is to unite and make the state prosper. Our 'Parivartan Yatra' is getting tremendous response all over the state and wherever it is going, there is a rousing reception," he said.
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BJP President Amit Shah has been visiting the state very frequently and has asked the workers to launch door-to-door booth-level campaigns, led by party leaders including union ministers from the state.
In the 2013 assembly polls, the people of Karnataka gave a clear verdict, with the Congress winning 122 seats, while the BJP and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) bagged 40 seats each.
There was a hung assembly in 2008, when the BJP got 110 seats and the Congress came second by winning 80 seats, while the JD-S got 28 seats. In the 2004 assembly polls, the BJP got 79 seats, the Congress 65 and the JD-S 58.
The BJP leaders have been accusing the ruling Congress of dividing the people by raking up issues like Tipu Jayanthi and religious status to the Lingayat community.
The state government has been celebrating the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan -- former ruler of Mysore -- on November 10 in Karnataka and the BJP has been opposing it.
--IANS
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