Karnataka - Hassan   

Support of BSP will be crucial, says Kaliveer

Emphatic: Bahujan Samaj Party leader Sridhar Kaliveer addressing presspersons in Hassan on Monday.

HASSAN: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) State general secretary Sridhar Kaliveer has said that even after 61 years of Independence, 70 per cent of the population continues to live below the poverty line. Many of them do not get two square meals a day, and there are 16 crore unemployed youth in the country.

He blamed successive governments for implementing wrong policies. Mr. Kaliveer expressed confidence that this time the BSP would win all seven seats in Hassan district and more than 60 Statewide. He said that for any political party to form the government, the support of the BSP would be necessary. “We will help balance power in the region,” he said.

Mr. Kaliveer said the BSP was formed by Kanshi Ram in 1984, but it had not spread its roots to the gram panchayats. It had booth committees in all polling stations in the country. This time it had allotted seats community-wise. Sixteen per cent of seats had been given to the Veerashaiva community, 12 per cent to the Vokkaligas, 23 per cent to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, 11 per cent to religious minorities and the remaining to the Other Backward Classes.

The party had successfully distributed 20 lakh acres of land to the landless in Uttar Pradesh, he claimed. This would be implemented in Karnataka too. He promised free distribution of rice to the poor and free electricity for farmers.

In addition to this, the party would create a stability fund of Rs 10,000 crore to provide a minimum support price to farmers when prices of crops came down.

He said he had contested from Sakleshpur in the 2004 elections and had secured 18,000 votes (17 per cent of the polled votes). This time too, he would contest from Sakleshpur, he said and added that he was confident of a victory. He said the aim of the BSP was to provide transparent governance.

Senior party leaders P.G.R. Sindhia, Veer Singh, Trishul Pani Patel and H.N. Nanje Gowda would campaign in Hassan district on May 3 and May 4, he added.

The former Minister K.H. Hanume Gowda, who recently joined the BSP, said there should be a change in the political system, otherwise the gap between the rich and poor would increase.

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