BJP has lost face in Karnataka: Siddaramaiah

B D Narayankar reports

     Bangalore, Apr 14 (PTI) Taking a swipe at BJP in
Karnataka for seeking votes in the name of Narendra Modi,
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said they had lost their
face having been immersed in corruption during the party rule.
        Siddaramaiah said the re-entry of former Chief Minister B
S Yeddyurappa and BSR Congress' B Sreeramulu into BJP will not
remove their taint or help BJP. "BJP candidates are not asking
vote for BJP but for Modi because they have lost their face."
     Speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised by the
Bangalore Reporters' Guild here, he said he did not expect the
people of the state to forget the 'misdeeds' of the previous
BJP regime which was immersed in corruption.
     Siddaramaiah endorsed BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi's
statement that there was no Modi wave in the country.
     "Initially, there was a Modi wave but it appears that at
present the BJP has disowned 'Modi wave' as it was refleted in
Murli Manohar Joshi's statement. Joshi is a senior leader and
his words carry weight," he said.
     Also endorsing Joshi's remarks on the Gujarat model of
development, he said Gujarat is not the number one industrial
state, instead it is Maharashtra. "Karnataka is in second
place and Gujarat third," he added.
     There is 38 per cent poverty in Gujarat which is more
compared to Karnataka and 60 per cent dropouts registered in
educational institutions there, he said. "Gujarat is number
one in malnutrtion," he said.
     Joshi, who headed the BJP manifesto committee, had
suggested that the Gujarat model of development touted by Modi
cannot be made applicable for all states, observing he did not
favour a "straitjacket" model of one particular state.
     On Modi's marital status, Siddaramaiah sought an
explanation from the Gujarat Chief Minister for not mentioning
it in previous elections and said suppression of facts in the
affidavit was an offence.
     "Why did he tell a lie all these years about his marital
status? This act shows that RSS and BJP are good at turning
lies into truth," he said.
     Keeping in mind the May Assembly poll results last year
in which Congress won 122 seats, he said the party is expects
to win at least 18 to 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state."We are
leading 22 Lok Sabha constituencies as per our survey."