‘BJP will hold key to the next govt formation in Bengal’

“They (The Left Front) have no policy. They are hanging in between. They could neither bring investment to the state nor could they do something for the farmers and workers. There is no development here in any way,” said Gadkari.

Stating that his party will hold the key in the next government formation in Bengal,Gadkari said: “The people here have turned away from CPM and will understand that (Trinamool Congress chief) Mamata Banerjee is also unreliable. Therefore they will be looking for a new alternative.” “The BJP had earlier got 12 per cent votes in the state. The response I have received from BJP workers is that the party is capable of making a turnaround,” he added.

The party,he said,had decided to enroll professionals and intellectuals besides people belonging to the unorganized sector,scheduled caste and scheduled tribes.

Asked to comment on former ally Mamata Banerjee,Gadkari smilingly replied: “My good wishes for her.”

The BJP president also hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee over the rising prices and said the menace will stay as long as the Congress government continues in power. He said his party is not anti-Muslim but indicated that Ram Mandir will continue to be in his party’s agenda.

“Inflation will stay as long as the Congress remains at the Centre. Prices will come down once it goes. History shows that whenever Congress was in power,there has been inflation and price rise,” said Gadkari. He said that since essential commodities were included for trading in the National Commodities Exchange,it has recorded a turnover of Rs 4.50 lakh crore,but only Rs 4,500 crore was actually delivered.

“We want to ask the Union Finance Minister where the rest of the money has gone and whether anyone has looted the money. We ask the Prime Minister why no action is being taken against the culprit? After all this is public money,” he said.

“The Prime Minister is saying that he is looking towards a double-digit economic growth. What will happen is double-digit inflation,” he said.

Gadkari claimed that one-third of the country’s agricultural produce perished owing to lack of storage space and it was the wrong economic policies of the UPA which has added to the people’s woes.

He asserted that the BJP is not anti-Islam,but anti-terrorist. “The BJP is sometimes accused of being anti-Islam. I say,if it were so,why Atal Bihari Vajpayee suggested the name of A P J Abdul Kalam for the post of President?” the BJP president said.

With PTI inputs