Bengaluru: In order to buck the anti-incumbency facing the ruling party, the BJP on Thursday strongly set a Modi vs Congress match-up to win the May 10 assembly election with an absolute majority in Karnataka.
This was reflected in BJP's Chief Poll Campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to party karyakartas and Karnataka voters via video conferencing from New Delhi.
PM Modi called on party karyakartas to end revdi culture (culture of freebies) of the Congress party, and also targeted the grand old party for its lies and corruption.
Further slamming the Congress for its revdi culture, Modi said "there is no meaning of its guarantees when its warranty itself has expired."
The main takeaway of Modi's address to the karyakartas is to bolster BJP's campaign in the backdrop of challenges it is facing in the form of rebellion and a visible anti-incumbency against the state government due to inability of the government to expand its cabinet, and muted response by the government to the "40 per cent commission government charge by the Congress."
Other reasons for anti-incumbency against the government are an episode involving the son of a BJP MLA being trapped by Lokayukta in a case related to seeking monetary favours in lieu of a contract, and raising questions on the 4 percent reservation for Lingayats and Vokkaligas by Supreme Court.
To buck this trend, the BJP is hoping that a focus on the central leadership and the central government will help offset these challenges.
In continuation of offsetting the trend, PM Modi urged the karyakartas to make the people understand how instability has caused losses to the people of Karnataka under Congress.
He asserted that the aim of BJP's opponents is to just win the elections, "but the BJP's aim is to free India of issues within the next 25 years."
Slamming the Congress party, PM Modi stated, "Congress doesn't talk about how long it took to make the 2nd AIIMS of India. It took almost 60 years. The Congress will never talk about this. From 1947-2014, there were only 380 medical colleges in India. After 2014, it has increased to over 600 colleges. That is because the BJP works with speed and scale, while Congress works half heartedly."
When Arun Shett, one of the karyakartas, from Dakshina Kannada asked about the revdi culture of Congress party, PM Modi said, "Some parties have made the definition of democracy as just winning elections, and they will do anything to win them. They don't care about anybody's welfare. To appease the population, they spend a lot of money."
Taking a dig at the opposition, PM Modi said BJP does not take shortcuts, it works towards the development of the nation and asset creation for the future.
"Shortcuts will cut you short. BJP doesn't think for the party, it thinks for the country. We have to destroy the politics of bribery and appeasement to witness true development in the state and nation," he said.
PM Modi also exhorted the karyakartas to make people of the state know about the benefits of Double-Engine Sarkar, he said, "Double-Engine Sarkar means that the people get to witness the benefits of the scheme faster."
"The states where non-BJP parties are ruling, they modify these schemes for their own benefit. If there is no Double-Engine government, the people face double the problem. If there is a Double-Engine government, there will be double the speed of development for the people."
PM Modi said seeing the way how BJP karyakartas have received support from the public makes him feel happy that BJP will win the elections with absolute majority.
"The hard work and efforts of the BJP karyakartas will definitely win us a majority in the upcoming election. Festival of democracy is on in Karnataka. You hail from the land of Bhagawan Basaveshwara who imparted the principles of democracy. You have the double pride of being a nationalist and a BJP karyakarta," he added. (UNI)