The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BJP aiming for 25 Lok Sabha seats

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Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BJP aiming for 25 Lok Sabha seats

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Target set: Rajnath Singh, BJP National President (second from left) being felicitated by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa; State President Sadananda Gowda; and General Secretary H.N. Anantha Kumar, during the State BJP Executive meet in Bangalore on Tuseday.

BANGALORE: Impressed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s performance in the Karnataka Assembly polls, party National President Rajnath Singh has set a target of winning 25 of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State for his Karnataka unit.

Mr. Singh set the above target for the party on Tuesday at its first-ever executive committee meeting held after it came to power in the State. Inaugurating the executive, he asked the State unit to be prepared to face the Lok Sabha elections any time.

He cautioned the party that the Opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) were likely to join hands in the Lok Sabha polls and asked them to be prepared to face such a combined resistance.

Mr. Singh said the victory of the BJP in the Assembly polls had sent a message that the party would be the first choice of the common man for the Lok Sabha polls. Hailing the budgetary programmes taken up by the Government in the State, he said that Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa should now work towards extending interest-free loans to farmers if elected in the next term. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Yeddyurappa urged the party workers to ensure that the BJP candidates win by a minimum margin of 15,000 votes in the by-elections to the State Assembly. He asked them to create awareness among the people about the Government’s development programmes and also ensuring that the benefit of such programmes reach the people without the menace of middlemen or bribe-seekers.

He also launched an attack at the Opposition parties by alleging that they were trying to find fault with all the development initiatives of the Government.

He strongly defended the trend of several MLAs from other parties joining the BJP. He said such a step was necessary owing to the efforts by the Opposition parties to create political uncertainty. Sources in the party said that at the meet, Mr. Yeddyurappa told party leaders that there was a likelihood of by-elections to the State Assembly being held any time now along with by-elections in other States. He asked them to prepare for the polls.

Meanwhile, the State executive adopted a resolution seeking strengthening of the intelligence wing. It suggested that the Government should make separate appointments to the intelligence wing instead of the present system of drafting staff from other wings of the Police Department.

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