KARNATAKA ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS | BATTLE FOR KARNATAKA
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BJP lotus blooms as Congress power withers
Published on Mon, May 26, 2008 at 05:15, Updated on Mon, May 26, 2008 at 05:46 in India section
Tags: Assembly Elections 2008, Karnataka
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The BJP's three-point poll plank during the Assembly elections in Karnataka – ‘betrayal, inflation and terrorism' – thrashed the Congress' virtual one-point agenda of 'stability' in Karnataka.
The final tally showed the BJP had won 110 seats in the 224-seat Assembly while the Congress improved its tally since 2004, but the JD(S) ate away its votes.
With the fresh victory the BJP on Sunday extended a winning streak ahead of the General Elections due in early next year.
So what went wrong with the Congress and JDS in Karnataka? Did the anti-incumbency factor lead to BJP’s victory in the south of Vindhyas? Or was it the great betrayal by the Gowdas and the JDS that led to the saffron party flying its flag high in the state?
Experts and politicians from across party lines took part in a marathon debate with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai and political analyst Yogendra Yadav to delineate the Assembly elections in Karnataka.
The panel of experts comprised of Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Prithviraj Chavan, BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Prakash Javadekar, Executive VP of Cranes Software Rajeeva Karandikar, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh.
BJP claims south poll
Jaitley, who micro-managed the BJP’s election campaign in Karnataka, said there were several factors that enabled his party to reach 110 seats from 79 in the last Assembly elections.
“We had a leader in Yeddyurappa who added value to the party’s campaign. He helped in expanding the party’s social base. We also focussed on issues like stability within the state, which had a direct link to politics of opportunism and the betrayal by JDS. We also focussed on price rise, farmers’ plight and the Centre’s soft policy on terrorism,” Jaitley explained.
Comparing the Congress’s campaign with the BJP in Karnataka, he said, “Five of the BJP’s national leaders addressed election rallies in the state in the last one month, in comparison Congress’s campaign was quite modest.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had addressed just one rally in the state while Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi went for a quick tour. So, is election management one of the many problems ailing the Congress?
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The election strategy of the Congress is very much lacking. They should have fought the election aggressively. But I doubt
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The THREE PETALS OF THE LOTUS FLOWER on which the BJP embarked its campaign in Karnataka--Betrayal, Inflation & Terrorism--have earned
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Stop the support to selective secularists who dont care about the national interests.Only BJP genuinely cares about national intergrity and
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Pseudo secularism needs to be annihilated and put into the coffin. India is at brink of a perilous position architected
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Karnataka elections outcome is not at all surprising.People all over the nation have lost faith in Congress's ability to govern
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