Amit Shah predicts BJP will win over 130 seats

BENGALURU: BJP president Amit Shah, who concluded his campaign in the state on Thursday, said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will “change his opinion” about who the real Hindu is “when counting starts for the Karnataka results.” He was reacting to Siddaramaiah’s remarks that he is a Hindu and that Shah is a Jain. Siddaramaiah had called BJP leaders “communal Hindus” while he was a “secular Hindu.”

Shah has predicted that the BJP will win more than 130 of the 224 assembly seats in the state. “People are angry with the Siddaramaiah government. The number of farmer suicides in the state is the highest in the country. Many of our workers were killed, but the government failed to give justice to their families. The CM is contesting in two seats but he will lose in Badami with a bigger margin than in Chamundeshwari,” Shah said.

“BS Yeddyurapa (state unit president) will be the CM and he will hold that position for the full five years,” he said, quelling speculation in BJP circles and in the Lingayat community, the party’s main votebank, that the 75-year-old Yeddyurappa will be sidelined after the elections or replaced by a younger, more fire-brand leader. Yeddyurappa is considered the tallest Lingayat leader and the BJP had welcomed him back from his splinter Karnataka Janata Party to ensure that their votebank remains intact.


“Hum unke peeche chattan ki tarah khade rahenge (we will stand behind him like a rock),” Shah said.

He said there is a big ideological difference between Congress and BJP, and his party would never sit with SDPI and PFI, but on the other hand, Congress would join hands with them to form government.