BENGALURU: Polling for the Lok Sabha elections may have concluded in Karnataka but leaders and workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party will be allowed no rest, according to state unit president BS Yeddyurappa. With bypolls to two assembly seats -- Kundgol and Chincholi -- scheduled on May 19, the BJP has its eyes fixed on winning both. The BJP, with 104 seats in the legislative assembly, hopes to add two more to its kitty, bringing the strength of the coalition further down.

In a meeting of state office-bearers on Friday, Yeddyurappa categorically told his partymen that all leisure, if any, will only be allowed after May 23, when results of the Lok Sabha polls are announced. “All of you must campaign for the bypolls and work from the booth level. Everybody has to work without excuses, in whichever way you can. All your holidaying and honeymooning plans can wait. You may go wherever you want after May 23 and I won’t ask you any questions,” Yeddyurappa said. He insisted that the political scenario in the state was favourable to the BJP, considering the infighting between JD(S) and Congress.

“We are confident that we will win more than 300 seats across the country and at least 22 in Karnataka. Heavyweights of the Congress and JD(S) like Veerappa Moily, KH Muniyappa and Mallikarjun Kharge have already practically lost to our candidates. H D Deve Gowda losing in Tumkur should not come as a surprise either,” he said. BJP’s national organising secretary B L Santhosh, senior leaders D V Sadananda Gowda, C M Udasi, B Sriramulu, Arvind Limbavali and N Ravikumar headed the meeting of office bearers.

“Infighting in the Congress and JD(S) has already begun. There should be no doubt that those differences will only increase after results of elections are announced. Given this situation, we have to win both seats of Kundgol and Chincholi at any cost,” Yeddyurappa told his partymen.