Hours after the Congress named its Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, the outgoing Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said the BJP has not lost self-confidence because of the poll debacle and that it will bounce back in the State.
Speaking to mediapersons in Bengaluru, the Chief Minister said the BJP had begun the process of introspecting the reasons for the debacle at different levels. The party was set to hold a meeting of newly elected MLAs and defeated candidates in two to three days to decipher the reasons for the defeat. Leader of the Opposition too would be chosen in the same meeting, Mr. Bommai said, while asserting that there was no dearth of leadership in the BJP.
Seeking to downplay the poll defeat, the outgoing Chief Minister blamed the failure to reach government’s welfare measures to people in some of the areas and the fact that the Congress was ahead in poll preparations as the main reasons for the poll debacle. He asserted that the BJP would spring back in the State.
“Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivamkumar have been chosen six days after declaration of election results. I congratulate them. We have to accept people’s verdict in democracy,” he said.
“People have huge hope on the guarantees of the Congress. The Congress has the responsibility of implementing it by ensuring that the State’s financial health is not affected. Let us see how they will manage the situation,” he said.
Assuring people of the State that they would work as a responsible Opposition, he said the party would not politicise issues related to State’s land and water resources.
