BJP plans stir against berths for DKS, Baig

The Karnataka unit of BJP will hold black badge protests at all district headquarters of the State on January 6, opposing the induction of D K Shivakumar and Roshan Baig into the Cabinet.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, BJP State president Pralhad Joshi accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of betraying the people by going back on his promise of keeping tainted persons out of power.

“While Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi claims credit for the Lokpal Bill, persons facing corruption charges are inducted into the Cabinet. This exposes the dual stand of the Congress on corruption,” Joshi said.

When questioned whether the BJP was softening its stand on corruption by inducting former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa (who has several corruption charges against him), Joshi said the party had always been against giving constitutional positions to people facing allegations.

“We did not protest against them (D K Shivakumar and Roshan Baig) when they were legislators. They are now made ministers and we are protesting against that move,” Joshi said.

Joshi said the BJP core committee and political affairs committee, which met in Bangalore on Thursday, decided to start the process of finalising BJP candidates for 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State from January 9.

Consultations

In-charge committees from 28 constituencies would meet in Bangalore for two days from January 9 and the State core committee would elicit their views on probable candidates, he said.

Joshi said the BJP Yuva Morcha and Mahila Morcha would hold statewide protests against the steep hike in the prices of non-subsidised LPG/autorickshaw LPG on January 4 and January 6, respectively.

State-wide campaign

The party would launch a door-to-door campaign across the State from January 15 to January 30, highlighting the “failures” of the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the State.

Pamphlets listing the achievements of the NDA government and the development model of its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, would also be distributed, he said.