Mysore: The country was heading towards a coalition government as neither the Congress nor the BJP are unlikely to get an absolute majority despite claims by political leadership, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Monday.
He said the mood of the country is clearly in favour of bringing in a UPA government to reject communal and divisive forces.
The senior Congress leader observed that neither of the two national parties were in a position to cross the 150 mark out of 543, despite claims to the contrary by BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Karnataka, he said the Congress along with its ally JD(S) is expected to win around 20 seats out of 28 parliamentary constituencies.
The first phase of polling is scheduled on April 18 in the state.
Talking to PTI in an exclusive interview during a campaign trail, Siddaramaiah said: “Both Congress and BJP appear not to be in a position to get an absolute majority on their own. The UPA will however get a clear majority.”
Holding that claims and reality are two different things, he said there is no Modi wave. On the contrary, there is a growing wave of people wanting to curb divisive and communal forces. This has put full stop to the second term for the NDA.
“According to me, the UPA will get enough seats and will emerge as a single largest front. Naturally, other regional parties will rally around,” he said and added the Mahagathbandhan (the grand-alliance) has taken place so that the secular votes are not divided.
He said, “The campaign is against the BJP which is a communal party. All secular forces which were fighting each other, have come together to prevent division of votes among secular parties. We are fighting against the communal party.”
Siddaramaiah, who is also chairman of the Congress-JD(S) coalition committee…
