Karnataka Elections 2023: PM Modi Campaign To Ensure BJP Majority, Says Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: The Congress knows fully well that they are not going to be in a position to implement any manifesto, least of all in Karnataka, so they will put everything that represents their thought process into it. So, you see appeasement and a large number of promises that will never be kept.  And outside the manifesto, the same old politics of abusing the Prime Minister continues. I don't think there is any big idea in the Congress manifesto. With respect to the gig workers, there are many central schemes that already cover them. We don't believe in dividing people in these kinds of classifications. There are broader protections under the labour laws, which are comprehensive and cover many aspects, including those that pertain to gig workers. I don't think at this stage there is a need for any separate protection. 

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: This is going to be a historic election in more ways than one. And one of the historic elements of the election will be that after many, many years, there will be a party that will get a decisive majority, and it will be the BJP.

Last time, in 2018, the Congress and JDS were rejected by the people of the state. The mandate was clearly for the BJP as the single largest party, but despite that, people saw how they came together, hijacked the mandate for almost 20 months.

This time, what we are saying—and the voters are responding and the polls are showing that—is give us five years of uninterrupted, steady, consistent development that goes from one year to the second and so on, as you have seen in the economy or many states, such as UP. Because people are the biggest stakeholders here, they know that the coalition of the Congress-JDS will not deliver and the BJP needs a full majority to work.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: I don't think our approach is populism. There is a certain consistent thread where people who are poor and vulnerable get social security support from the state. We don't design schemes to win elections. There is a certain pattern and consistency on growing the economy, ensuring there is more investment, more job creation and then, at the bottom end of the economy, allowing people (or) giving them whatever they need to get out of their poverty.

Let me cite an example of skilling from Karnataka. Before 2014, three out of four Indians in the Indian workforce were unskilled. Nearly 1.9 crore Indians who joined the workforce, including a large number from Karnataka, were unskilled when they joined the workforce. This is also because when they dropped out of school, they did not have the skills. The National Education Policy, which Karnataka has implemented, brings skilling and allows people to be in the workforce with skills. But the Congress says it wants to withdraw the policy. So, that is the difference in the approach. We want to create opportunities to enable people to take the next step. It is empowerment and economic growth, not populism.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: See, Bengaluru has to be looked through a proper prism, dispassionately. Bengaluru had become an urban chaos, a nightmare where vested interests ruled for a decade and a half till BS Yediyurappaji or Basavaraj Bommai became the CM. In 2018, we laid out a vision for Bengaluru and actually announced a separate Bengaluru manifesto. Therefore, our commitment that we needed to change the course of the development of Bengaluru was signalled then.

Unfortunately, when we formed the government in 2019–20, we had to immediately deal with the issue of floods and then, the challenge of Covid-19. So, in the last three and a half years, we have got only in the last six to eight months some opportunity, time and resources to implement the Bengaluru manifesto.

This time. when we get the five-year mandate, we definitely want to look at overhauling Bengaluru, starting with notifying the state capital region and looking at a region-wise development plan, rather than just a city so that population, disposal, infrastructure development, creation of better standard of living for all Bengalureans can be planned over a larger region, rather than concentrating in one city, leading to problems that we have seen in the last decade. So we are very committed and I am very excited about the PM's vision for the city, taking it to global standards without compromising on its core cultural and historical values that it stands for.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: I am also a resident of Bengaluru and I have been in a state of disappointment for the last 20 years. I don't deny that people are disappointed and they want faster change. In Bengaluru, particularly. And I tell them, look at these two groups of people. You have the same old Bengaluru Congress MLAs and a revamped team of the BJP with a vision to develop Bengaluru. I just want to tell them don't let the Congress MLAs, who represent legacy and vested interests be re-elected. They will just be roadblocks to the real development of the city.

Yes, there is impatience and people want this to happen faster. To that, my answer is simple. Be considerate. Last three years, we were dealing with protecting lives and livelihoods, delivering vaccines and rations. The entire administration here was focused on protecting people and fighting Covid-19. I know memories are short and people move on rapidly, but as a public representative, it is my job to remind people that we got only three and a half years, and in that, apart from the fight against Covid-19, in the last one year, investment worth Rs 9,000 crore have been made, metros and roads have been expanded.

Significant progress has been made and a lot more is to be done. Three and a half years is not enough time and one and a half years is certainly not enough time to address all problems of the last two decades. Hence, we are asking for five full years to continue in this direction of progress.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Absolutely, 100%. Some days ago, we already became the single largest party in Karnataka. We were at the 2018 levels two weeks ago, or a little more than that. But we have changed our battle cry or plea to our voters. From being the single largest to give us a majority. We don't want to certainly become victims of Congress-JDS opportunism and end up with 109 or 110 seats and have them hijack the mandate again.

A definitive clear majority has been the call since the PM started campaigning here and that will continue till May 8. He is here for four more days of campaigning and we are sure we will have a clear, stable majority so that five years of economic growth and development can be given to people.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Look, these are all tried and tested, and failed models. This is not the first time the Congress has used promises of money to distract people from larger development requirements. A woman in Karnataka or anywhere in the country wants better education for herself and her children, health, infrastructure growth, better opportunities for her family. It is almost an insult to say that you can buy all these aspirations for improving their lives by giving them some money.

In a way, the Congress manifesto mocks the intelligence and aspirations of the people of Karnataka, specifically the women, and assumes that issues such as health, education, skills, roads, trains, opportunities don't matter.

They would like to keep people poor and keep giving them handouts. Our ideology, in fact, the whole approach is different. It is basically about empowering them and their families to have a brighter future. This is why the PM has always spoken about revri politics. The Congress can promise anything it wants because it knows it will never have the opportunity now to do this kind of disruptive economics.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: UCC is not a Hindutva issue at all. This is what the Congress would like people to believe. By definition, it brings equality in rights, gender rights more importantly, religious equity and makes it clear that nobody is "special or not special" under the law. A Muslim woman deserves the same rights as a Hindu woman in the Indian democracy. UCC is there in Goa and that is not a Hindutva state.

There are basically canards being spread. As with regard to NRC, in today's world beset with crime and terrorism, it is certainly an important aspect for people of Karnataka to feel safe to know who is coming from outside, etc. Genuine concerns of the people of Karnataka have been dealt with in the BJP manifesto. Our manifesto doesn't favour anyone, it is a promise of a governance model that addresses every Kannadiga regardless of age, caste, gender or class.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Corruption is 100% an issue on the ground, but the Congress is raising it to distract people from its own record of 60 years, floating this canard of 40% commission. CM Bommai did say that having a press conference and some crooked contractors doesn't make it the truth. Prove it and file a case. Corruption is an issue, and people have not forgotten that it was Siddaramaiah who wanted to dilute the Lokayukta.

We, on the contrary, strengthened the Lokayukta, gave them investigating powers. The son of our own MLA was nabbed and his father was removed from the party. They both are in jail.

Corruption is a legitimate issue and we have zero tolerance for it. It was PM Modi and the BJP government at the centre that plugged the 85% leakage issue flagged by Rajiv Gandhi himself in the 1980's. It is laughable that an on-bail DK Shivakumar and out-on-bail Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramiah, a "socialist" who wore a Hugo watch as the CM, are talking about corruption. They cannot be the poster boys for any talk against corruption.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Both Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi are senior leaders and I know them very well. This time, the party took a decision that we want new faces. Nearly 73 of the 224 candidates are new workers who have worked very hard for the party and their communities. Usually, when a new generation is given an opportunity, the older generation that has enjoyed position of MLA for decades and even deputy CM, etc, should step aside and let the young people grow. And they mentor them.

But unfortunately, in these two cases, both put their personal ambitions ahead of the state's and party's interest, and they chose to do what in my opinion was unthinkable—get into cahoots of the party they opposed for 40 years. I can tell you both of them will lose as Congress candidates, and both Hubbali Dharwad and Athani will have BJP MLAs in the next assembly.