"BJP's real face is known"

Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna on Friday said the "mask" of the BJP had been "uncovered" with the inclusion of the Ram temple issue in the NDA manifesto and accused its allies of having "caved in to" the saffron party.

Charging that it had always been the "gameplan" of BJP on the Ram temple issue and its real face was known now, Krishna told reporters here that the so called secular parties headed by George Fernandes, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu should "introspect" on it at least now.

Krishna, here as part of his "Vijayadundhubi Yatra" to campaign for the party, said the NDA partners were continuing the alliance out of "greed for power".

He also accused the BJP of raking up the "dead issue" of Bofors. It would, however, not have the people's approval.

Krishna asserted that the people of the state would reject the "unholy" alliance between BJP and JD-U.

The people of the state defeated NDA in Karnataka in the last polls and at least this should have been an eye-opener for JD-U leaders who aligned with a "reluctant" BJP, he said.

If Ramakrishna Hegde had been alive, he would have opposed this kind of an alliance, he said asking JD-U leaders to recall the "insult" BJP had heaped on Hegde.

In the last election, the BJP and JD-U struck a hurried poll pact and BJP won 43 assembly seats and the JD-U 19.

JD-U, then the ruling party, contested 10 Lok Sabha seats in the last polls while this time BJP has given it four.