No Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj or Jaitley at the rally.
Nothing seems to be going right for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. The party's plans to hold a large-scale convention ahead of the assembly polls to improve the sagging fortunes fell flat on Monday with the aircraft carrying the entire galaxy of BJP national leadership having to return to New Delhi mid-way on its flight due to technical snag.
The high-pitch Vijaya Sankalpa Samavesha, organised at the Palace Grounds, was deflated as BJP national president Rajnath Singh, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley could not show up.
The state BJP leaders salvaged something for the disappointed gathering by arranging video conferencing system for Rajnath Singh to address the gathering from New Delhi. The party president's message was beamed on the giant screens erected at the venue.
The mood of the gathering lacked the enthusiasm that is usually witnessed at such huge rallies and the state leaders repeatedly stated that the special flight ferrying the national leaders had an emergency landing at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh as it developed technical snag and they had to go back to New Delhi. In spite of this, doubts were expressed by many about the arrangements for the video conferencing, which is said to have been done much earlier.
The group of state leaders—comprising chief minister Jagadish Shettar, deputy chief ministers KS Eshwarappa, R Ashoka, party general secretary Ananth Kumar and most of the ministers and MLAs—failed to evoke an encouraging response from the crowd. Though all the leaders on the stage waved at them, there was not much enthusiasm among the crowd.
'Clap!'. Silence
Even when minister CT Ravi urged the crowd to give an overwhelming clapping, which would send chills in the hearts of the Congress and the JD(S), the crowd did not oblige. None of the leaders, including Ananth Kumar and Shettar, could impress the gathering through their oratory skills.
Shettar blamed the opposition for stalling the launch of Rs2 per kg rice programme of the party for petty reasons. He claimed that he would come to power in next elections and launch it. He maintained that in the first week after becoming the CM, he took a decision to waive farmers loan, which put a burden of Rs3,600 crore on the state exchequer.
Ananth Kumar praised Shettar for creating 43 taluks and staging a walkout from Cauvery River Authority meeting in the interest of the state.
Through video conferencing, Rajnath Singh said the party had to take a hard decision on former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa according to the policy of the party. He said he was thankful to people who allowed the BJP government to complete the term.
State BJP president Prahlad Joshi, ministers Govind Karjol, most of the sitting MLAs and candidates who were given ticket to contest in assembly elections were present.
@dna
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