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BJP's handling of K'taka absolutely opportunistic
New Delhi (IANS): Terming the electoral outcome in Karnataka not surprising, BJP leader L K Advani on Sunday said the party had erred in not taking...
New Delhi (IANS): Terming the electoral outcome in Karnataka not surprising, BJP leader L K Advani on Sunday said the party had erred in not taking immediate firm action on allegations of corruption against B S Yeddyurappa and its handling of the state had been "absolutely opportunistic".
He also demanded resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after reports that he had to be nudged in asking Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar to resign as union ministers. A In the latest post on his blog, Advani said he felt sorry for the party's loss in Karnataka but he was not surprised. "The surprise would have been if we had won," he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that if the party had immediately taken firm action when it became apparent that Yeddyurappa, its first chief minister in south India, was "unabashedly indulging in corruption", the course of events would have been quite different.
He said Karnataka results had a profound lesson for his party as its tally came down to 40 from 110 in 2008 but also had one for the Congress. "The common lesson for both of us is: let's not take the common man for granted... If corruption provokes indignation in Bangalore, why would it not cause the same feeling in New Delhi," he asked.
Advani claimed that the common man may occasionally deviate from the norms of ethical conduct, but does feel extremely angry when he sees those at the helm of national affairs behaving immorally. He said it was a reason for intense allergy towards politicians generally witnessed nowadays.
Referring to media reports that the BJP lost Karnataka because it threw out Yeddyurappa, Advani said the former chief minister left the party on his own. "Let me first point out that BJP did not throw out Yeddyurappa; it is he who broke away from the BJP and decided to form a factional party of his own, the KJP," he said, adding that the party had kept up frantic efforts for several months to keep placating Yeddyurappa.
"And our response to the Karnataka crisis was not at all a minor indiscretion. I have consistently maintained that our handling of Karnataka has been absolutely opportunistic," he said.
