Karnataka polls: Yediyurappa slams Siddaramaiah over promise to hike reservation limit

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 27 : Reacting sharply to Congress leader Siddaramaiah claiming that his party would increase the reservation limit in Karnataka from 50 per cent to 75 per cent if voted to power in the upcoming Assembly elections, former chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday said the "poll promise" would never be met as the prinicipal opposition party in the state was headed for defeat.

Speaking to on Wednesday, the veteran Ligayat leader said, "Since he [Siddaramaiah] is going to lose miserably, the question of increasing the reservation limit in the state does not arise."

"We [BJP] are going to do everything in our power to form the government," he added.

Siddaramaiah, also a former chief minister who is eyeing a fresh term in post after the May 10 Assembly polls, had tweeted, "The Congress party is committed to increasing the reservation limit from 50 per cent to 75 per cent and extend reservation to all castes based on their population."

Earlier on Wednesday, Yediyurappa came down hard on BJP turncoats Jagdish Shettar and Laxman Savadi, who recently switched over to the Congress, saying that they will pay for betraying the ruling party in the upcoming Assembly polls.

Shettar, a former chief minister, and Savadi, who formerly served as the deputy CM, belong to the Lingayat community which is believed to hold sway over electoral outcomes in the state.

Hitting out at both the BJP deserters, Yediyurappa said, "I call on the people not to cast a single vote for Laxman Savadi and Jagdish Shettar, as they betrayed the BJP despite being entrusted with key portfolios in the government."

"I am 100 per cent certain that both these leaders would lose this election. There is no doubt about it," Yediyurappa told .

The 224-seat Assembly polls are slated to take place in a single phase on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.

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