Kempegowda Jayanthi won't help ruling Congress: Dr Vaman Acharya, BJP Spokesman

As the state heads for the 2018 assembly polls, Dr Vaman Acharya, a former Pollution Control Board chairman and one of the BJP’s spokesmen, believes time is ticking for the Siddaramaiah government owing to the anti-incumbency factor. Claiming that it has not earned the support of the major communities of the state, he dismisses the possibility of moves  like celebrating Kempegowda Jayanti placating them  overnight.  The Modi factor and the “charisma” of state party chief, B S Yeddyurappa would help  BJP return to power in Karnataka he asserted in an interview with Deccan Chronicle. Excerpts.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appears to have scored over the BJP and JD (S) by deciding to celebrate Kempe Gowda Jayanthi as a state festival and making it mandatory for state government offices to display a  picture of Basaveshwara.
This is not about political parties. We need to ask how the communities concerned are reacting to this. I think there is an inherent distrust between the Chief Minister and hte majority communities here. See what happened with the caste census. Knowingly or unwittingly, it was leaked. And it is very clear that the Vokkaligas and Lingayats were targeted through the census. Dividing the communities and listing  sub-groups like Kunchitigas, Dasa Vokkaligas and Maras Vokkaligas as different castes has hurt their pride. So this one gesture can’t appease them.  Even the groups which he tried to pamper have not got the benefits due to them. Many youth among the OBCs are very upset about this. Recently, they announced free bus passes for children belonging to a particular community. This is not fair. There cannot be discrimination among children.

The Chief Minister has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has no issue with which to attack his government because it is scam-free and has people-oriented programmes. What do you have to say to this?
Anti-incumbency is there in almost all the countries, barring Russia and Turkey. And the  Siddaramaiah government is no exception. I can see people are tired with  the government and the ruling party MLAs. The S.M. Krishna government was much better. He faced more difficulties like the Cauvery crisis and the Rajkumar kidnapping and still kept his flock together. But here everyone knows what Shamanoor Shivashankarappa is saying and why Mr Vishwanath quit.  And no one is sure  what D.K. Shivakumar will do next. The Dalit Chief Minister issue,  which has been shelved, will be rekindled.  Mr Vajpayee did a wonderful job as head of a coalition government (at the Centre), and so did Krishna. But they were not re-elected. When the government today has no such achievements to its credit, it could have more problems in store when it goes to the polls.

But when there is no scam and the Chief Minister announced a farm loan waiver, what do you tell the people?
No scam? There are so many from the Hublot watch to the steel bridge and every day there is one new scam. From the assault on Shikha to Anupama Shenoy and the death of D.K. Ravi and Anurag Tewari, every episode is a scam involving the ruling party. You took away the Lokayukta’s  powers and formed the ACB , which is a paper tiger. When there is no mechanism to monitor scams, obviously they will not be exposed. And while I welcome the farm loan waiver. it will not help. What we expected was readjustment of farm loans by converting them into 10 or 15 instalments and letting the farmer pay small amounts so he can take a fresh farm loan to kickstart his farming. But that will not happen if you waive off the  farm loan.

What is your strategy under these circumstances?
After his state -wide tour, Mr Yeddyurappa told us that 160 constituencies are with us. But the problem is the 160 constituencies which are in our favour this year will be different from those, which will back  us next year, We want to stop this. Like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, we would like to have our own pocket  boroughs, just like the ‘Congress seats’ of the seventies and eighties. For instance, no matter who ruled Chattisgarh, we got over 40 seats. We would like to implement this model here. Also Narendra Modi and his mesmerising effect will count too. He is an icon. This will help us a lot. Under the Deen Dayal centenary programme, we will go to people and tell them what the Modi government has done and what our party stands for. After this an intense political campaign will be launched for the polls.

You spoke about people being tired of Congress leaders, but they are also tired of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
I think that’s over. After five years, people feel the BJP is better than the Congress. We are comfortable after Mr Yeddyurappa’s intense state- wide tour as he got a good response even in a very difficult constituency like Arakalagudu.  We will give gas connections under the Ujjwala scheme to over 35 lakh households.  Don’t think that you alone can come out with a populist scheme and win over voters. We can do it too.

Does it mean, you are leaving it to Mr Modi to win Karnataka and you have nothing to offer?
I also said we have Mr Yeddyurappa. His 30-day tour has been very effective. We will use Mr Modi’s performance and his image supplemented with Mr Yeddyurappa’s charisma. Then the organisation will go to the field and accelerate the campaign. No, we did not make any mistake in announcing mission-150. Based on what I said just now, the mission is very achievable and within our reach.