BJP state president and the party’s chief ministerial candidate for upcoming assembly elections B.S. Yeddyurappa and other colleagues of his spent a night in slums across cities in Karnataka to attract poor urban voters.
Yeddyurappa spent an entire night at an auto-rickshaw driver’s house in Lakshmanpuri slum of Bengaluru’s Gandhinagar area. He even had breakfast there and held a public meeting with slum dwellers.
Apart from Yeddyurappa, several other BJP leaders similarly spent a night in slums in other cities: leader of opposition Jagdish Shettar in Hubballi, former deputy CM Eshwarappa in Shivamogga, Lok Sabha MP P.C. Mohan in Bengaluru, and popular leader Shobha Karandlaje at CM Siddaramaiah’s hometown Mysuru.
Yeddyurappa promised slum dwellers proper houses if BJP comes to power and blamed Congress for not being serious towards their plight. He said the fact that so many people live in slums even after 70 years of Independence proves that Congress is least interested in eradicating poverty.
The former chief minister also released a report compiled by his party showing data relating to over 2,000 slums in the state. The report claims that there are over 70 lakh slum dwellers in Karnataka and most of them live without basic civic amenities like electricity, water supply and access to public toilets.
Yeddyurappa promised about 8 lakh proper houses for slum dwellers by 2020 in case BJP comes to power this term. He also informed people about pro-poor policies that have been adopted by BJP-led central government under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.