Bengaluru/Hubballi, DHNS: State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa and leader of the opposition the Assembly Jagadish Shettar on Thursday hit back at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his remarks that the Union ministers from Karnataka are inefficient.

Yeddyurappa said Siddaramaiah in his slumber must have made adverse comments against the Union ministers from the state. All the Union ministers are functioning effectively and also contributing for the progress of Karnataka. This has helped the BJP gain more popularity and, Siddaramaiah is unable to tolerate this, he said.

He was addressing BJP workers in Bengaluru after Mysuru-Kodagu MP Prathap Simha and former minister C H Vijayashankar assumed office as presidents of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha and Raitha Morcha respectively. Yeddyurappa said Siddaramaiah and his council of ministers are struggling to run the government. They are not able to even conduct the ongoing legislature session properly. The chief minister has no moral right to criticise the Union ministers, he said.

He said the people are waiting to get rid of the Siddaramaiah government. They are cursing the Congress government. All the organisational units (morchas) of the BJP?should work hard for the next 21 months to oust the Congress, he said. Yeddyurappa said that for the BJP, more than the weakness of the Siddaramaiah government, the achievements of the Narendra Modi government as well as the work done by the BJP while it was in power in the state would help in winning the next elections. “At one time, the party had just two MLAs in the state. One of them ran away. I used to say that I alone would bring the party to power but none believed. But I achieved the goal.”

The BJP leader said responsibilities have been allocated keeping in mind the target of winning 150 seats in the coming Assembly polls.

It is not that all those who have been given responsibilities would get the party’s B form to contest the elections. Tickets would be given based on the performance and with the consent of the party high command, he said.

In Hubballi, Shettar told reporters that Siddaramaiah has no morality to call Union ministers from Karnataka as inefficient. “Siddaramaiah himself is an inefficient and incapable chief minister. The administrative machinery has collapsed in the state and officials, farmers and common people have no protection. When this is the case, it is unbecoming of the chief minister to point a finger at the Central ministers,” Shettar said.