Bihar results death-knell for BJP: Jaipal

Hyderabad: Former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy termed the defeat of NDA in Bihar Assembly elections as a ‘death-knell’ for the BJP and its allies who are in power in the Centre. Speaking to media persons in Gandhi Bhavan, he said the political arrogance, intolerance and the issue of reservation and policy towards minorities made the people to ditch NDA.

He explained that during the last 70 years, no Prime Minister had campaigned so vigorously for a State election like Modi did. Prime Minister had not only brought down the stature of his office, but also ran a campaign worst than a municipal election, he said. Recalling the Gujarat riots (2002), when Modi was the Chief Minister, Jaipal Reddy lamented that there was no change in his mentality and attitude, even though he held the top job in the country.

Referring to his close aide Amit Shah, who is also BJP’s national president, he said the recent remarks during the election campaign which compared Opposition to Pakistani agents had actually backfired. He questioned how they would send the entire Opposition to Pakistan. “Election results have clearly shown that the intentions of Modi, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat would not be accepted by people,” he pointed out.

According to him, the government failed to react over the issue of ‘returning the awards’ by artistes and writers over the murders of rationalist writers and lynching of a man over rumour of ‘beef’. “This is a democracy and people have the right to know why the government is silent over these issues,” he asked.

Former Union Minister recalled the development mantra of the BJP during the general elections, 2014 and felt good days never came, but people were witnessing ‘high inflation’. Expressing his pessimism over the ‘change’ of attitude in Prime Minister, he described Modi as a ‘lesson proof’ person who had failed to learn from Delhi Assembly results.

Rather learning from experience, he continued his vicious campaign against the Opposition and bit the dust, he said. “Hence, we can say that the BJP does not have future, when it continues with a leader like Modi. I don’t think Modi is capable of any change. This is the defeat of intolerance and basic attitude of NDA towards issue of reservation for weaker section,” he said.

TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy compared Modi with K Chandrashekar Rao and felt the results of Warangal elections would come as a ‘death knell’ to the TRS government. Since the State government’s policies were against farmers and agriculture, which continued to hold power with similar attitude of Modi, he would face the same fate, he added.