BJP will meet same fate in Chhattisgarh elections like Karnataka: CM Baghel

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had contested the Karnataka polls relying on its Central leadership and lost will meet the same fate in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters in Raipur, Baghel took a dig at BJP president JP Nadda, saying he is not taken seriously in the saffron party.

Asked about the proposed visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Chhattisgarh, Baghel said he came to know about the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, and such visits will happen as polls are nearing. Chhattisgarh goes to polls at the end of this year.

They (BJP leaders) will visit Chhattisgarh for four months (ahead of elections) and will see our works done in the interest of farmers, labourers, poor, tribals and women. You have seen the result of Karnataka where it (BJP) had contested the polls relying on its Central leadership. They will meet the same fate in Chhattisgarh like Karnataka, he added.

He termed as “eyewash” the recent induction of several people including Chhattisgarhi film actor and Padma Shri awardee Anuj Sharma, into BJP.

The Congress snatched power from BJP in Karnataka in recent elections by winning 135 seats out of 224. PM Narendra Modi, Shah, and a battery of BJP leaders had campaigned extensively to retain the BJPs only fort in south India but apparently failed to swing votes.

Baghel said Nadda has led BJP to successive electoral defeats and is not taken seriously in his own party. “You have seen Amit Shah pushing Nadda and pulling him back by holding his hand at the central office of BJP. We also do not take the statements of Nadda seriously. Ever since he became the president of BJP, he has led his party to defeat in his home state (Himachal Pradesh) and also Karnataka. Who elected him (as the party president) is yet to be known and this is his second term, then who will take him seriously?” he asked.

Baghel said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has “opened the shop of love in the market of hatred”.

“Rahul talks about connecting people whereas the existence of BJP will be under threat if it will not make people fight with each other,” he added.

In the 2018 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, the Congress bagged 68 of the 90 seats, restricting the BJP, which had been in power for 15 years, to just 15.

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