K'taka poll will mark countdown for UPA Govt fall:Naidu

Hyderabad, May 12 (UNI) Exuding confidence that the BJP would come to power on its own in Karnataka, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today claimed that the election in the state would mark the beginning of the countdown for the UPA Government's fall.

Addressing a press conference here, he claimed that according to internal survey conducted by the party at the ground level, the BJP would bag 119 to 129 seats in Karnataka to form its own Government as the people there were disenchanted with the past coalition experiments and ''opportunistic politics'' of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular).

Denying any differences between BJP leaders B S Yeddyurappa and Ananthkumar, he maintained that all party leaders were working in a coordinated manner to win the election in Karnataka.

The downtrend for the ruling Congress had already begun with the party getting defeated in 10 of the 12 states, which went to polls after the 2004 General elections, while the BJP had won in seven states, he said.

Only leaders of those parties facing court cases were sticking on to the ruling coalition at the Centre, he contended, adding that even the Congress allies were ''dissatisfied'' with the performance of the Manmohan Singh Government.

The Left parties were increasingly finding it difficult to support the Congress-led UPA Government, which had ''totally failed'' on all fronts, including to check the price rise, he claimed.

The party's National Executive would meet in Jaipur for three days from May 31 to prepare for the next round of Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and also for the next Lok Sabha election, which were likely take place sooner than the schedualed time, he said.

Asking the UPA Government not to put the blame on the BJP-led NDA, which had introduced Futures trading in agricultural commodities when in power, he wanted to know why the Manmohan Singh Government was hesitating to ban online trading if it was responsible for price rise.

UNI SM VA ROY ARB DS1612