BJP govt will complete full term, say Karnataka Ministers

Amid repeated claims by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the BJP government in Karnataka was short lived, several Ministers on Tuesday asserted that the administration under Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's leadership would complete its full term. The ministers also expressed confidence about the BJP comingback to power after the next assembly election.

"I want to say- just as the Narendra Modi government completedits five year term in the county and got elected once again,in the same way we willcomplete the term under Yediyurappa's leadership. The next government will also be BJP," Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol told reporters.

Continuing to express doubts over the longevity of the BJP government, Siddaramaiah, who is the Congress Legislature Party leader, had recently asked his party workers to prepare forassembly polls. Housing minister V Somanna said the government would complete its term and get the blessings of the peopleonce again in the next elections under Yediyurappa's leadership.

"Siddaramaiah is an experienced politician. I don'tknow what his perspective is. As far as I know, this governmenthas three year ten months time. We will complete the term andfight the election under Yediyurappa's leadership toget the blessings of the people once again," Somanna toldreporters.

He said the people of the state did not desire any election soon As the Yediyurappa-led BJP government completed onemonth in office recently, Siddaramaiah had claimed that it may last one year at the most. Revenue Minister R Ashoka hit back at Siddaramaiah, saying he was making such comments as he was unable to digest not beingin power.

"He (Siddaramaiah) is unable to digest that his government has gone. He is unable to stay without power. He issaying all this out of his grief over losing power. There isno truth in what he is saying," he said. Ashoka said Yediyurappa would be Chief Minister for three years and 10 months and honest efforts would be made to give good administration to the people.

Following the collapse of Congress-JD(S) coalition government, Yediyurappa was sworn in as Chief Minister onJuly 26 and subsequently proved his majority on the floor ofthe assembly on July 29. More than three weeks after he was sworn in as CM, Yediyurappa expanded his cabinet on August20 by inducting 17 Ministers, and a week after that allocated portfolios to them.

Both the cabinet expansion and allocation of portfolios thereafter, that saw appointment of three deputy Chief Ministers, had lead to discontent within the BJP. Siddaramaiah has been repeatedly saying that the BJP government cannot survive for long as it has come to power with the help of 17 Congress-JD(S) disqualified MLAs.

Alleging that 17 of them favoured BJP for the sake of "power", Siddaramaaih has said, "With those who are not committed to a party's principles and programmes, with those who don't have political values if you form a government, how long can it survive?" The absence of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs during the trust vote had led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy headed coalition government in July and helped the BJP come to power. The then assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar haddisqualified 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law, which they have challenged in the Supreme Court.

On getting relief from the apex court, some of them would be inducted into the cabinet as per the arrangement agreed upon, BJP sources have said..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)