In the wake of BJP state President BS Yeddyurappa’s claims that the Karnataka Assembly elections will be fast-tracked, CM Siddaramaiah, on Sunday, clarified that the elections will be held between April and May 2018 as per schedule.
He was speaking to media persons before laying the foundation stone for various development works in Hassan.
“BJP leaders are unnecessarily creating a huge confusion about the Karnataka Assembly elections. The elections will be held as per schedule and it will not be held in advance,” the Chief Minister said.
Siddaramaiah said that the Congress party has been gearing up to fight the elections. “We are in the process of forming booth-level committees to look after campaigning,” Siddaramaiah said.
Earlier in June, BS Yeddyurappa had asserted that the ruling Congress party may advance the dates of elections and had asked his party men to get ready.
Yeddyurappa had said that the polls were going to be held in December this year, nearly five months ahead of schedule.
“The Congress has its reasons in going for early elections. Get prepared to fight early polls,” Yeddyurappa told his party men.
With the appointment of KC Venugopal as the new national general secretary in charge of Karnataka and the continuance of Dr G Parameshwar as KPCC President, besides the announcement by the party that it will fight the next election under the leadership of Siddaramaiah, all these developments led Yeddyurappa to assume that the election dates will be advanced, a BJP source said.
The BJP’s list of candidates for the poll will be finalised during BJP President Amit Shah’s visit to Karnataka on August 3, 4 and 5.
Responding to the plea by Rajya Sabha Member K.B. Shanappa that tickets should be given only to those candidates who had bright chances of winning rather than those who hung around senior leaders, Yeddyurappa declared he was prepared to conduct three rounds of surveys to identify suitable candidates.
“The tickets will be given only to those who have a good chance of winning. We will implement the same strategy as the UP elections,” Yeddyurappa said.