Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said Congress would retain power in the next Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2018 and the BJP would not come to power at any cost even if it resorts to some circus.
Participating in a debate in the Legislative Council in Belagavi, Siddaramaiah, in response to JD(S) member Basavaraj Horatti’s advice to not announce constituting the pay commission keeping Assembly elections in mind, said that he would go ahead with the announcement in the Budget session in 2017. “I will present the Budget for the year 2018 too. I will go to people after presenting the Budget for the year 2018-19. I am confident of people electing Congress to power again,’’ the chief minister said.
He said the BJP leaders building castles in the air on returning to power would not stop Congress from retaining its reigns. “The Opposition parties will remain on the Opposition benches and the Congress on the treasury benches,’’ he said.
When JD(S) leader Sandesh Nagaraj asked whether the voters would elect JD(S) to power, the chief minister said the chances of electing JD(S) to power would be remote.
At this juncture Leader of Opposition K S Eshwarappa said that some political leaders had been busy in day dreaming. “Congress which described Narendra Modi as a communalist during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 got defeated. I am sure of BJP’s victory in the next Assembly elections,’’ Eshwarappa challenged.
Reacting to Eshwarappa’s statement, chief minister said the people of Karnataka would have elected BJP to power once but the real status of the party would be revealed after the Assembly elections.
