Polls - Karnataka '08

[acharya]

There is reason to beleive that congress deliberately lost the Karnataka election.
It may be for reason to reduce the pressure on UPA on the nuke deal.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/26inter.htm

What was your strategy to win the Karnataka election?

We took a few steps before the election. The party should be clear about the leader. We selected B S Yeddyurappa. He has a huge record of struggle in Karnataka. There was a time when he was the only BJP MLA in Karnataka.

He has struggled for the party. He has toured the length and breadth of the state. He comes from a background where his social base is quite strong. In fact, his presence has added value for the BJP in a large part of Karnataka.

You will also recall that there were certain problems in the organisation. But I found that Ananth Kumar's attitude in the election was extremely constructive. Both Ananth Kumar and Yeddyurappa unanimously decided 224 candidates for the party along with other leaders.

We had no problems during the campaign, we had some problems initially. Broadly, my strategy was to give a free hold to the candidates in the state and inject the central leadership. We had (BJP prime ministerial candidate L K) Advaniji, (Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra) Modi, Sushmaji (Swaraj), (BJP President) Rajnath Singh and (former BJP president M) Venkaiah Naidu who addressed almost 200 public meetings in the state. Compare that to the one meeting of Dr Manmohan Singh [Images], six of Mrs Sonia Gandhi [Images] and a few hours of Rahul Gandhi [Images]. I thought the Congress campaign was a little lukewarm.