BJP president JP Nadda is assured that his occasion will retain workplace in Karnataka and break the pattern of no occasion successful two consecutive phrases since 1985. In dialog with TOI, Nadda takes up points on Karnataka and underplays rebellions within the state. Excerpts from the interview:
Several senior BJP leaders have give up and joined Congress and JD(S). Seems like BJP is on a sticky wicket.
Since the Jan Sangh days, no chief who left the occasion has flourished. Secondly, leaving the occasion is one factor, what in regards to the ideology? When you revolt ideologically, you’re standing in opposition to a faculty of thought. So, absolutely, the loss will at all times be yours. Lot of thought went into ticket distribution. Some persons are sure to get replaced. However, the occasion is galvanised, enthused and most of the people preferred the occasion’s choices.
Since 1985, no occasion has come to energy twice in a row in Karnataka. What makes you imagine you’ll defy historical past?
nWe got here to workplace in Tripura and Nagaland twice for the primary time. In Goa, we got here to workplace for the third time. In Uttarakhand, we got here to workplace for the second time working. In Uttar Pradesh, we gained 4 consecutive elections. Our largest benefit is Modi ji’s character. It has helped us earn individuals’s respect and given us braveness to realize the unprecedented. People see Modi ji because the car of their aspirations. Secondly, the occasion has additionally been rising.

There is a notion {that a} senior chief like Jagdish Shettar ought to have been obliged with a ticket contemplating his stature.
This was a aware, thought-about opinion that we’ll give senior leaders completely different duties. It is essential that members perceive this. Unfortunately, he couldn’t.
They mentioned they have been knowledgeable very late.
That’s the best way it occurs. I’ll say they didn’t have the maturity to know the occasion’s choices. Be it Anil Baluni or JP Nadda, we all know and imagine that those that make choices about us will certainly make proper determination.
There have been many allegations in opposition to the federal government in Karnataka.
This is a malicious marketing campaign in opposition to us. Not one case has been filed. Even the case in opposition to Eshwarappa was closed and he acquired a clear chit. Corruption could be very a lot linked to Congress. They should reply on the Arkavathi structure rip-off, the recruitment rip-off, the land use change rip-off, lecturers recruitment rip-off. Be it Siddaramaiah or DK Shivakumar, everybody is aware of about them. You would learn about their head of media cell who in an unguarded second blurted ‘our sahab takes 10-12% commission’.
Last time, you projected B S Yediyurappa because the chief ministerial candidate. This time, Basavaraj Bommai is the incumbent chief minister. But his identify hasn’t been correctly introduced.
In the latest previous, we haven’t made such bulletins in different circumstances. These issues are determined by the parliamentary board. However, Bommai is the chief minister and we’re preventing the election underneath his management.
The quota rejig, taking away the 4% of Muslim neighborhood and giving 2% every to Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities occurred proper earlier than polls. Was it performed in view of attainable anti-incumbency?
No, the demand had been pending for a very long time. We have been inspecting the difficulty. Such issues are resolved after intense consultations. The Muslim quota was unconstitutional. The determination has been lauded throughout the board.
Congress has introduced that it’s going to reverse the choice whether it is elected.
That has at all times been the Congress means, divide and rule. Also, Constitution doesn’t permit religion-based quotas. How will they carry it again? But dividing individuals, polarising a neighborhood has been their behavior.
Those who’ve left embody senior Lingayats. Do you suppose that this can harm your assist among the many neighborhood.
No, by no means. Lingayats or anybody else, individuals’s curiosity in BJP is simply rising. No occasion might give Lingayats what BJP has performed. What did Congress do to Lingayat chief Veerendra Patil? They unceremoniously eliminated him in 9 months.
Certain sections have condemned the choice to ban the unconventional Popular Front of India as vindictive.
You don’t anticipate higher from Congress. They at all times wish to polarise. Congress patronised and indulged PFI and communal tensions grew underneath Siddaramaiah.
This marketing campaign additionally marked Congress’s decided bid to win over Lingayats, an essential ‘first’.
Who will hearken to them? These are crocodile tears. We haven’t disrespected anybody. You humiliated a chief minister. We have a steady course of that senior leaders will transfer on to newer duties. Didn’t Yediyurappa come again? If Shettar had stayed, his duties would’ve modified. Eshwarappa’s duties will change.
You have reached out to the Vokkaliga neighborhood however the historical past within the space has recorded a battle between the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities? Won’t it have an effect on BJP?
That will not be so. BJP has a robust and credible ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ platform. We have a observe report of safeguarding everybody’s pursuits. That’s why if we do one thing good for Lingayats, that’s not on the expense of Vokkaligas and vice versa.
About the Prime Minister, you mentioned that individuals believe in him. Congress members have categorically said that they are going to concentrate on state-specific points.
Such plans are an affidavit to Modi ji’s enchantment in Karnataka. People have realised that BJP underneath Modi ji is the best choice for them.