CEC's poll date announcement shattered Cong's dream: BJP

Bangalore, Apr 3 (UNI) The BJP in Karnataka today said the Congress' dream of getting the State Legislative Assembly elections postponed was shattered following the announcement of poll dates.

Addressing a press conference here, BJP spokespersons Suresh Kumar said AICC General Secretary and incharge of Karnataka Prithviraj Chauhan's statement ''what is the hurry for elections'' showed that the Congress was not prepared and the announcement of dates was a severe blow to the party's prospects in the May elections.

''The BJP welcomes the Election Commission's decision to hold the polls in three phases and end the process before the six month period of the Governor rule. At the same time the party would take it as a challenge and come to power on its own.'' Former Minister Ramachandre Gowda, who was also present, took strong exception to JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy's claim on the introduction of farm loan waiver by the JD(S)-BJP Government in Karnataka earlier.

''It was the BJP which initiated the ban on lottery system and it was former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa who struggled day and night for introducing the loan waiver and slashing interest rate to four per cent on farm loans taken from cooperative sector,'' he claimed.

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