india

Updated: Feb 28, 2019 10:17 IST

BJP’s Karnataka unit chief BS Yeddyurappa has landed in yet another controversy after suggesting on Wednesday that the pre-emptive strikes launched by India against Jaish-e-Mohammed camp would help net his party more than 22 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general election.

Yeddyurappa, who has begun campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, was speaking to reporters in Chitradurga when he made the statement.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said he would avenge the killings [in the Pulwama terror attack]. The whole country has welcomed this and so have the opposition parties. Youth are dancing and celebrating. The result of this is that it is easy for us to now win more than 22 Lok Sabha seats here,” the former chief minister said.

Yeddyurappa’s remarks came in for sharp criticism from Congress leaders, who took to Twitter to condemn the statement. Congress’s Karnataka unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao said the BJP leader’s statement was disgusting.

“Most disgusting shameful irresponsible statement made by ⁦@BSYBJP⁩. Using the #J&K situation for political benefit. Is winning elections becoming the criteria for BJP & not the security of India. Is going to war a electoral strategy for the BJP,” he tweeted.

Siddaramaiah, former chief minister and chairman of the coordination committee of the Congress and Janata Dal(Secular) alliance that is in power in the state, also condemned the remarks.

“I condemn the [Yeddyurappa’s] statement, where he has used the martyrdom of our soldiers to dream of electoral gains, that reeks of political greed. The tears of the soldiers’ families have not dried up and already [there are] calculations on the number of seats! Disgusting.”

Siddaramaiah later said, tweeting in Kannada, that Yeddyurappa’s statements had raised suspicions on the intentions of the central government.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi must clarify on this,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Yeddyurappa’s comments will add to the opposition parties criticism of the ruling party’s “blatant politicisation” of the sacrifices made by Indian armed forces.

The tension between India and Pakistan has ratcheted after Indian Air Force’s jets bombed the Balakot based Jaish-e-Mohammed camp on Tuesday. The strike on the terror camp came 12 days after the Pulwama suicide attack in which killed 40 CRPF soldiers as a Jaish terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy on Jammu-Srinagar highway on February 14.

And on Wednesday, India shot down a US-made F-16 fighter of the Pakistan Air Force and an Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot, part of the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) that engaged the in-coming Pakistani fighters, was captured after being shot down in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK).