Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh has increased the confidence of its Karnataka unit. State BJP leaders described the results as an indication of things to come in the 2018 State Assembly polls.
While BJP State president B S Yeddyurappa said that the victory in Uttar Pradesh after 26 years increased the confidence of the party’s Karnataka unit of winning more than 150 seats, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar said it was an indication that the Congress is bound to be routed in Karnataka.
Yeddyurappa said that BJP national president Amit Shah would take final decision on the selection of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly polls. “We have already identified 175 winnable candidates. However, Shah will take a call after getting a survey done through his own sources,” Yeddyurappa told reporters.
Congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Shah, Yeddyurappa said: “The U.P. victory has proved that Shah is Chanakya of Indian politics.”
He said the strategy by the Congress to woo minorities in a big way through appeasement had failed in UP.
The party workers celebrated the UP victory at the BJP State headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday by distributing sweets and bursting crackers.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Ananth Kumar said the outcome of the Assembly polls in UP and other States might lead to a Sonia-Rahul mukt Congress, and added that the two leaders had become a liability to Congress party.
