A leader has to take blame: Basavaraj Bommai responds to BJP’s failure

Bengaluru: The sitting chief minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai has listed three factors for the BJP’s failure in the Assembly polls.

Bommai, who piloted the party’s campaign, owned up responsibility for the drubbing adding that ‘A leader has to take blame. Only then only things can move forward’, NDTV reported.

The BJP has been reduced to 66 seats in the 224 assembly seats, where the Congress won 135 and HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal Secular has to content itself with 19 seats.

Bommai in an interview with NDTV said the Congress started its campaigning early while the BJP lagged behind.

One of the lessons the party learnt from the election debacle, according to him, is the Congress was more organized and started earlier.

BJP had taken decisions belatedly and acted late, he said adding that people were ‘swayed by freebies’.

Basavaraj Bommai claimed that the BJP government had done ‘a lot of programmes’ but ‘ right messaging to the people’ about these programs did not happen.

The BJP’s entry this time round into JD(S) stronghold of Southern Karnataka led to shifting, he said, of five percent votes in favour of the Congress.

The BJP has maintained its vote share of 36 per cent from 2018, while the Congress surged forward bagging 42.9 percent and the JD(S) slid to 13.3 percent from 18.3 percent.

Bommai expressed hope that the party’s organizational structure will weather the failure in a few months, before improving.

‘ The major thing is that we have to prepare the party quite early for the Lok Sabha election. We have to bring in new blood, and new thinking at all levels. We have to rejuvenate our workers. Within three to six months, things will change and help us,’ he reportedly said.

With the Congress’ resounding win, Karnataka is going to be a major battle ground in Lok Sabah polls as the state sends 28 MPs to the parliament.