Yogendra brings Swaraj to Maddur & breath of fresh air

Bengaluru: National President of Swaraj India (SI) Yogendra Yadav and well known poll number cruncher, blew the poll bugle for his nascent party on Tuesday, announcing the names of six candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections, a day ahead of kicking of the party's campaign on Wednesday with the inauguration of the Swaraj India party office in Maddur.

Reluctant to spell out the scale of whether victory or defeat stares the two main contenders in the fray, the one time psephologist didn’t hold back on his searing criticism of the tactics employed by political parties. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Yadav slammed the BJP and Congress for playing the soft Hindutva card for vote bank politics.

Yadav rued the fact that secularism, which began as a principle has degenerated into electoral compulsions and is the biggest political farce today. “It is being misused by the so called ‘secular’ parties, who have been holding Muslims as hostages for long,” said Yadav.

“The BJP is indulging in one of the most brazen attempts at communal politics in West Bengal and Karnataka by igniting and accentuating the divide between Hindus and Muslims. This is anti-national and tantamount to treason," he said.

"The Congress strategy of campaigning on soft Hindutva card is to balance one kind of appeasement that they have long indulged in -  to appease not the Muslims but the Muslim clergy with the other appeasement of Hindu clergy, in the hope of a rich electoral harvest in the longer run. JD(S) is an opportunist party and is principled about opportunism.”

“We may nominate some more candidates in the near future but will restrict the numbers to not more than a dozen. We are making a small electoral beginning with Karnataka because the State is a fertile ground for big social and political movements. The land offers rich intellectual and political resources but unfortunately there are no political carriers for this wealth of resources. We want to be that political carrier  and our goal is to be considered as the number one political party for those, who are seeking an alternative to the BJP, Congress and other regional parties such as the JD(S)."

He criticised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on the issue of okaying the minority tag for the Lingayats and said that it has been a long standing issue, which was espoused by all political parties.

“It’s a very serious issue, for which there should be a national policy. It would be very unfortunate if the Lingayat issue is decided by show of strength or political compulsions,” said Yadav. He added that SI will continue the journey that his previous party Aam Admi Party (AAP) had started but could not complete because of people, who led the party, had “small ambitions,” he said hinting at his earlier colleague and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. “AAP is irrelevant nationally. In Karnataka it has some very good candidates like Prithvi Reddy and Renuka Vishwanathan and I wish them success,” he said.