Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah yesterday slammed the Congress party for scrambling to form an alliance with Janata Dal (Secular) after the recently-concluded assembly elections in Karnataka despite losing the mandate of the people.
Holding his first press conference following the elections, Shah criticized the “unholy” alliance between Congress and JD(S) that was formed not on ideological grounds, as the two parties are claiming, but rather they came together only to keep BJP away.
He criticized both parties for coming together despite fighting each other bitterly during campaigns and election rallies. Such an alliance is only opportunistic and it can never provide a stable government to the state, which people wanted from BJP, he said.
The BJP president also attacked Congress for lying in the Supreme Court by stating that Yeddyurappa had sought seven days’ time from the governor to prove his majority. When asked why BJP staked claim first despite not crossing the majority mark, he said BJP had received overwhelming support from people, while Congress had been wiped out, and so BJP would have betrayed peoples’ mandate had they not staked claim first.
Replying to charges of horse-trading that opposition parties have been leveling on BJP, Amit Shah said both Congress and JD(S) have disgruntled MLAs who are unhappy with this post-poll alliance. BJP could have easily received their support during Yeddyurappa’s trust vote had the two parties not locked them up.
Shah also responded to allegations of opposition parties claiming governors of states like Goa and Manipur had favored BJP by inviting it to form governments despite not being the single largest party. He said Congress had been too “lazy” to spring into action after results were declared, so governors of these two states had to approach BJP and other parties to form the government.