Karnataka verdict will teach BJP lesson to mend ways: Kharge

The May 12 Karnataka Assembly election results would teach a lesson to the BJP to mend its ways and send a larger message that people will not accept what the NDA-led party is doing on the advice of RSS, senior Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge has claimed.

While the Congress' campaign theme revolves around development, it's also an "ideological fight" against the RSS-BJP which he alleged, is taking people for a ride. "They (RSS-BJP) are implementing their own agenda. Particularly the weaker sections, minorities and poorer sections, they feel insecure under the BJP and RSS-supported government," the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha alleged.

Karnataka Assembly poll is "very crucial" not only for the State's interest but also from the national perspective, he said. "

If you don't prevent BJP here (in Karnataka), then definitely they will destroy the democracy; they are talking a lot of things about a change of Constitution and also 'Hindutva' against the minorities. All these arguments (of the BJP), people don't accept," Kharge told PTI.

On some opinion polls forecasting a hung verdict in the poll, he said pre-election survey predictions depend on their terms of reference and on parameters they were conducted.

Karnataka is 'ahead' in development, and on law and order, investment and employment-generation fronts and, so, the ruling Congress would be 'ahead' in the election also, Kharge said. Alleging that the BJP-led NDA government did not fulfil election promises, Kharge listed various schemes and welfare programmes of the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka.

"I don't think people will let us down," he said.

Kharge claimed that the BJP has deployed 30 to 40 Central ministers and about 100 ministers from various States for campaigning in Karnataka and drafted RSS workers for door-to-door canvassing. "This itself shows that they (BJP) are afraid of Congress," he added.

The coming election is "very important and crucial" as it would send a "message" that "whatever the BJP is doing, on the advice of RSS, people are not going to accept." Charging the BJP with trying to weaken institutions, including the Judiciary, Kharge said people would be happy if such a party is defeated at the hustings. "This will teach them a lesson to mend (ways), (and) to act according to the Constitutional methods," he said.