BJP ahead of Congress for polls: Jaitely

Bangalore, Apr 17 (UNI) Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitely, who is also in charge of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka, today claimed that his party was ahead its main rival Congress in formulating electoral strategy, including declaring the names of candidates.

Speaking at the launch of the party's election office here, he charged the Congress with groping in the dark as to who would be their candidates and the leader.

The BJP has already declared B S Yeddyurappa as its Chief Ministerial canditate in B S Yeddiyurappa and has announced the names of 185 candidates for contesting the polls next month, he said.

''Atleast 80 per cent of the candidates declared so far are out in the field campaigning way ahead of the Congress and have an edge over them even at the start of the race,'' he claimed.

The Congress tried every method to avoid the elections but failed miserably and was now facing its worst ever situation to fight the election, he charged.

Stating that inflation and price rise would be the most influencing factors in the coming elections, he said inflation was inching towards a double digit figure and with the UPA government at the Centre had no solution to curb it in near future.

''It is bereft of ideas in curbing the prices of essential commodities including food items,'' he said adding that the price rise issue would be BJP's major poll plank against the Congress.

He also alleged that Karnataka, of lat, had become the hub of terrorist activities due to its weak stand against the terrorists.

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