Either it will be BJP rule or mid-term polls: Muralidhar Rao

The H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in Karnataka will not be able to complete its full term and, either the BJP will have to take over the mantle or there will be a mid-term election in the state, BJP general secretary incharge of Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said on Monday.

Addressing the Telangana state BJP executive committee meeting here, Rao said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had “miserably failed” in leading his party in Karnataka.

“There are only two alternatives, either the BJP has to take the responsibility or there will be mid-term elections in Karnataka. There is no other way. It is people’s mandate,” he said.

“This (Karnataka) government cannot run like this. Because history says that any party with just 37 seats or 20 seats or 25 seats cannot run the government in democracy,” he claimed.

JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy, whose party secured only 37 seats in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly election, took over as chief minister of the state last week with the support of 78-member Congress team.

According to Rao, the people of Karnataka voted against the Congress and that it entered into an “unholy tie-up” with the JD(S).

“People wanted Congress-mukt Karnataka (Congress-free Karnataka). The way Ravana kidnapped Sita (in the Hindu epic Ramayana), Rahul Gandhi and Congress hijacked democracy in Karnataka,” he said.

“This will have an impact on political landscape of the country,” he said.

Taking a dig at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he said Naidu’s campaign against BJP fell flat as Telugu-speaking people in the neighbouring state voted in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The senior BJP leader said the ‘NaMo’ App through which Modi held video interactions with party cadre during Karnataka elections, would be used all over the country during the Lok Sabha polls.