In response to a specific question by News18 on the impact of the Congress’s ‘five guarantees’, like Rs 2,000 per month to women and Rs 3,000 to every unemployed graduate in Karnataka, Santhosh conceded that the promises had been the biggest campaigning points of the Congress in Karnataka and that the opposition party had “gone house to house on the ground” with them. “(But) we have our performance card or report card vis-a-vis their guarantee card. People understand that all these guarantee cards are only for election time. Where is the loan waiver, as promised by them in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan?” he told News18.
He further said that people also look for credible faces, not just promises. “Along with promises, they look at credible faces, voices and credible leadership. What is there in the form of credibility that Congress has to offer anywhere in the country — are there any good administrators they can offer in comparison to PM Narendra Modi or our CMs like Yogi Adityanath, Himanta Biswa Sharma, or BS Bommai? Will elections run only on sympathy like saying this is my last election? We have our report card. With such strong points in our favour, I feel we can overcome the guarantee card phenomenon,” Santhosh said in response to a question by News18.
BJP’s targets
Santhosh, who has been closely looking at the BJP’s Karnataka campaign, said that over the past 15 years, people in Karnataka have voted massively for the BJP and Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections, “but a bit less enthusiastically” for the party in assembly elections. “Despite that, we were the single-largest party both in 2008 and 2018. For 2023, we have our task cut out — the task is very simple to take on but very hard to achieve. We have been walking that hard path for the last three months. We are trying to get a simple majority, if possible get a good majority also. Our major aim is to cross the halfway mark, cross 120 and touch 130, if possible,” Santhosh said.
He said the Indian electorate now gives a total majority to whichever party it wants to, as shown in recent elections. “Now, the era is not of a fractured mandate. People now give a clear mandate. We were a bit on the back foot due to the continuous attack of the Congress which tried to build anti-incumbency against the Bommai government, but it was not successful. We don’t have any anti-incumbency troubling us or hurting us in spite of various allegations, in spite of the long Covid duration and heavy rains last year…the performance of the state government has been good, if not spectacular. In spite of hard attacks from the Congress, anti-incumbency did not build up,” Santhosh said.
He said the PM’s catchphrase “double-engine government” means the Centre and state government complementing each other. “See in Telangana, MVA government earlier in Maharashtra, or Rajasthan — they unnecessarily keep opposing the Centre,” Santhosh said, comparing it to various BJP governments in the states. He cited how the Karnataka government of BS Bommai added Rs 4,000 per year for 55 lakh farmers who get Rs 6,000 annually from the Centre under the PM Kisan Nidhi scheme.
‘BJP has hit the right chord at right time’
Santhosh also claimed that the Congress peaked early in the state, by April 24-25, while the BJP’s campaign has hit the right chord at the right time. “They peaked before the elections itself. Our manifesto has become hugely popular. Congress has nothing new to offer to the people,” Santhosh said. He said the Congress had tagged the Bajrang Dal with the PFI “just to grab the minority vote, and for appeasement”. He asked what logic did the Congress have to equate the PFI with the Bajrang Dal. “Bajrang Dal is a nation-building force, have they done even one incident? But PFI killed many people,” Santhosh said.
He hit out at Congress leader and former union minorities minister K Rahman Khan for saying PM Modi should not have asked voters to cast their votes by chanting “Jai Bajrang Bali” as this could create an atmosphere of fear for the minority community. “If in this country, ‘Jai Sri Ram’, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, or ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ terrorises some person, that person should go for a medical check-up first. This is a fault in such people’s psyche. These slogans we utter out of devotion and for the love of the country. After the PM’s function, what happened? People went home peacefully,” Santhosh said, adding ”Hindu and terrorism can’t walk together”.
Other controversies
Santhosh also took on Jagadish Shettar who accused the BJP strategist of denying him a ticket, following which the former chief minister moved to the Congress. “On candidate selection, we did have some process for it. Some senior leaders lost out, though they target individuals, no single individual decides tickets in our party,” Santhosh said, detailing the selection process that exists in the BJP.
He also said that in the 2018 elections, the BJP faced some problems in five districts: Belagavi, Bijapur, Bidar, Bellary, and Bengaluru. “If we had got a few more seats in these five districts, we would have crossed the halfway mark. This time our leaders are focussing on such districts,” he said. On the criticism that the BJP was also distributing ‘revadis’ in this election, Santosh said it may look like freebies to some, but the party’s idea was empowering people.
“LPG has become expensive due to the Russia-Ukraine war. We had provided Ujjwala, but because of prices, Ujjwala is not yielding results, so we decided to give three cylinders free to people in Karnataka to tide over the crisis…it is not for everybody, it is only for BPL families,” Santhosh said. He said the Congress targeted BJP with “40% corruption” slogan but there was no single police complaint or any to the Lokayukta and no FIR in any court. “They have nothing to show. Now it is dying down. They peaked before elections itself,” he said.
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