Siddaramaiah government has not taken off, says BJP

Bangalore: Slamming the performance of the Siddaramaiah government on completion of one year in office, BJP on Tuesday called it "a withdrawal government" and said it has not even taken off.

"...you (government) lied through the Governor's speech which promised to provide free laptops and sanitary napkins on which you later backed off. Governor's address is policy guidelines for the full year and you have backed off from what you have promised in that," BJP state unit president Prahlad Joshi told reporters here, adding, "in the same way you have withdrawn from many of your own decisions. If we go on counting about it, it will grow over a dozen."

"Counting your withdrawals, I can say yours is a withdrawal government and not a forward government," he said.

Joshi also hit out at the Siddaramaiah government over the hike in power tariff and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus fares.

Accusing the government of not doing enough to manage the drought situation, he said district in-charge ministers were not working towards supplying drinking water in their respective districts and were not paying enough attention towards drought relief work.

"The state government is completely non-functional, they are just calculating on the outcome of Lok Sabha polls," he added.

Stating that the government has totally failed in its first year's performance, Joshi said, "This government has not even taken off. There are no signs of it taking off. Even before it may take off, the government is likely to come to a complete halt due to technical snag."

BJP also alleged that the Chief Minister does not have control over his cabinet colleagues.

To a question on Lok Sabha poll performance, Joshi said BJP would win more than 18 seats (out of 28) in Karnataka.