'Congress-JDS will win 25-27 LS seats in state'

Congress and JD(S) combine will win 25 to 27 seats of the total 28 Parliamentary seats in the state in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, MLC and CM’s Parliamentary Secretary Ivan D’Souza said.

He was addressing a press conference at District Congress Office here, on Wednesday. “Congress-JD(S) combine will win 190 to 200 seats across the country while the BJP would manage to win 130 seats in Lok Sabha elections,” Ivan D’Souza said quoting a pre-poll survey.

He accused the BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah of conspiring to destabilise the coalition government in the state. “BJP’s efforts to topple the government, however, went in vain as the legislators did not succumb to the offers of BJP leaders.”

Ridiculing State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa, Ivan said that the leader had become desperate to gain power. People are disillusioned by the poor administration and the dictatorship policies of the Modi-lead central government. He claimed that under the Prime Minister’s ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, 53% of funds were spent on advertisements alone. Only Rs 28 lakh crore was utilised under the programme so far.

MLC clarified that the protest against the merger of Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank was not carried out for political reasons.

He also urged Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel to lead a delegation of all elected representatives from the district to Delhi and submit a memorandum opposing the merger of the Vijaya Bank. Ivan expressed his willingness to contest elections against Nalin.

Lashing out at the ‘backdoor entry’ remark by BJP, he pointed out that 18 Rajya Sabha members from BJP, including Arun Jaitely and Nirmala Seetharaman, hold powerful portfolios.

“MLC is a Constitutional position. D V Sadananda Gowda too was a MLC when he was the chief minister”, he added.

Ivan, further, said his appointment as the Parliamentary Secretary to the chief minister, is in accordance with the Karnataka Parliamentary Secretary Bill. An amendment to the original bill was made to include the post of political secretary, he added.