BJP State President Pralhad Joshi on Friday said one of the first decisions that the party would take if it comes to power in the 2018 Assembly elections would be to scrap the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).





Speaking at the inaugural of the state executive meeting in Bengaluru, Joshi said the government wanted to close down the institution of Lokayukta in the State to protect corrupt officials and ministers. “If we come to power, we will scrap the ACB and also strengthen and revive the Lokayukta”, Joshi said.



Joshi said the government had constituted the ACB with the intention of killing the Lokayukta institution. “We will also launch a state-wide campaign to protest the formation of the ACB from April 6”, he said.



He said the “wakf scam” in the State was bigger than the 2G scam and coal scam put together and involved Rs four lakh crore. He said government had been shying away from tabling the full report of the Karnataka State Minority Commission as it reveals the names of several Congress leaders who had encroached on the wakf land. He charged that senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge of meeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last week to impress upon him not to table the full report as the name of the former union minister also figures in the list.



Speaking on the occasion, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre will deal with “anti-national” forces with an iron hand.



He said it was unfortunate that the Congress and Left parties were supporting anti-national forces for their political interests. These parties were supporting those who praised terrorists like Afzal Guru, he said.



The Centre will soon fulfil its promise of providing five crore LPG connections at a concessional rate to BPL families over three years, Naidu said.



Later in the day, the party passed three resolutions - to register its opposition on the formation of ACB; failures of the State government in handling drought and power supply situation in the state protecting law and order and smooth conduct of examination and its failure to prevent question paper leaks.



The party also passed a resolution stating that the Mahadayi water dispute (Kalasa Banduri project) should not be politicised. The Congress was politicising the issue by dragging the prime minister into the issue.



The dispute had to resolved by the tribunal or by arriving at a consensus among the water sharing states, the party said.



