BENGALURU: “I have full faith and trust in the legal system. I have not committed any wrong. It is a political conspiracy,’’ BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said here on Monday, when asked about the audiogate scandal that rocked the party recently.

Former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, who was present at the press meet, added helpfully, ‘’The matter is before court, so we don’t want to say anything.’’ He interjected again to say, “Nothing happened in the Moily tapes scandal (of 1980s),’’ as a grim Yeddyurappa rose to leave, signalling that the press conference was over. It was apparent that he didn’t want to engage on the subject. Earlier, when asked about legislators like MLA Umesh Jadhav seeking to jump ship, Yeddyurappa said, “Let us wait and see.’’At the presser, Yeddyurappa spoke about the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and said evasively, “We are now completely focussed on the Lok Sabha elections.’’

Yeddyurappa, flanked by party leaders Shobha Karandlaje, Lehar Singh, Tejaswini Sriramesh and others, said, “We are targeting 22 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. Modi’s fame and stature has only been growing worldwide, and his development work and the recent Union budget will help us.’’

At present, BJP has 16 Lok Sabha members. Asked if anyone will be denied nomination, Yeddyurappa said, ‘’That is left to the central leadership. We have held meetings constituency-wise, and have a good number of aspirants.” He also spoke of his party leaders, split into five teams, visiting drought-hit areas across the state.

Ashoka, who was given the responsibility of the recent Hubballi rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the turnout was double the number expected. Modi is due to arrive in Kalaburagi for a rally on March 1.Yeddyurappa and Shobha took turns to explain the party’s upcoming programmes, ‘Mera Parivar BJP Parivar’ and ‘Vijay Sankalp bike rally’.