Hubbali: All India Congress Committee national general secretary (organisation) and one of the most powerful leaders of the Congress party at the national level, K.C. Venugopal said that the people of Karnataka were angry with the BJP government which was mired in corruption and were waiting for a change.
He is confident that the Congress will win the polls easily with absolute majority as he believes that people are waiting for that opportunity, he told IANS during the course of an interview. Excerpts:
IANS: Karnataka elections are on May 10. What are the prospects of the Congress?
Venugopal: This election will be a Waterloo for the BJP. The people of the state are angry with the BJP government and the highly corrupt activities of the government. The Karnataka government is a joke among the people as it’s the most corrupt government the state has ever seen. There is 40% corruption in every field and people are waiting for an opportunity to oust this government. The Congress will win the elections with an absolute majority and form the government in Karnataka.
IANS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been stating in public during the election campaign that Congress promoted terrorism. Your comments?
Venugopal: How can a person of the stature of the Prime Minister speak like this? It is the Congress party that lost two Prime Ministers to terrorism. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were brutally assassinated by terrorists. The Congress chief minister of Punjab Beant Singh was also killed by the terrorists. So the fight against the terrorists was carried out by the Congress shedding the blood of the party’s supreme leaders and what fight has the BJP or Narendra Modi put up for that. This is totally unbecoming of the Prime Minister to speak like this against a political party like the Indian National Congress.
IANS: Congress has always been lagging behind in North Karnataka in the past few elections and this has paved the way for you falling short of a majority. Are you able to make up for the losses this time?
Venugopal: The Congress is highly confident that we are going to win the North Karnataka belt comprising the Mumbai-Karnataka region with a good majority. I and the party observers had held a meeting with the district level office bearers of the Congress of all the Northern Karnataka districts and have found that the party is doing extremely well in all the constituencies at the ground level. The party cadres are enthused at the feedback from the public and this is the first time in the past several years that the party is gaining confidence in North Karnataka. In the Old Mysore area also the Congress is doing extremely well and I have got facts and figures from the ground level to substantiate my claims.
IANS: Former Chief Minister and senior leader of the BJP, Jagadish Shettar resigned from the BJP and is now contesting from Hubbali on a Congress ticket. Has his joining helped the prospects of the party?
Venugopal: Jagadish Shettar is a senior leader and one of the prominent faces of the Lingayat community. The community is angry over the Panchamasali Lingayat reservation and the resignation of a towering leader like Shettarji has added to the community’s opposition to the BJP. His resignation and that of former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi will definitely affect the voting of the Lingayats and would be in favour of the Congress party.
IANS: Will there be a fight for the Chief Minister’s post among Congress leaders in Karnataka if the party comes to power?
Venugopal: There will not be any issue among the party leaders regarding the Congress Chief Minister. If the party attains a full majority, there will be a unanimous choice of Chief Minister and there won’t be any problem in it.
