Janardhana Reddy has nothing do with the BJP: Shah

The BJP would win at least 130 seats and there is no need to take any party's support, Shah claimed.

The Congress wants to win the Karnataka assembly elections in an 'undemocratic' manner and the 'voter ID scandal' showed its desperation, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah alleged on Thursday.

Speaking after winding up the party's campaign for the May 12 polls, he sounded confident about the BJP forming a government on its own.

• KARNATAKA VOTES 2018

The BJP would win at least 130 seats in the 224-member assembly and there was no need to take any party's support, he claimed.

He also said mining baron Janardhana Reddy, an accused in illegal mining case, has nothing do with the BJP, adding, "What I have said is final."

The BJP has come under attack from the Congress over fielding the Reddy brothers -- G Somashekhara Reddy (Ballari) and G Karunakara Reddy (Harappanahalli) and their associates in the polls.

"The Congress wants to win elections in an undemocratic manner... The developments in the last three days have sent a shock wave across India among those who are concerned about strengthening democracy," he said, referring to the seizure of 'bogus' voter ID cards from a flat in Bengaluru.

Shah, who extensively campaigned in the state, was addressing a press conference in Bengaluru after leading a massive road show in Badami constituency from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting besides Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru.

Painting the town saffron, festoons and BJP flags fluttered all along Badami in north Karnataka as Shah gave a final push for the party, which seeks to return to power in the only southern state it had ruled.

Thousands of party workers sporting ochre colour caps danced to the drumbeats, whistled, screamed and raised slogans vowing to bring the BJP to power and defeat Siddaramaiah, who is also contesting from Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru.

Taking the onlookers by awe and surprise, party workers thronged the road disrupting the entire Badami town for more than two hours.

Beating the summer heat, the party workers marched all along the route enthusiastically.

Quintals of saffron colour marigold flowers were splashed on a bus converted to look like a saffron chariot that carried Shah, BJP's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa and its Badami candidate B Sriramulu.

Just two days before the D-day and also hours before the blaring loudspeakers fall silent, Shah made the final effort to woo the voters of Badami.

The seat is as much crucial for the BJP as for the Congress, for, it will decide the fate of Siddaramaiah too.

It is speculated that the caste matrix in Chamundeshwari forced him to find a 'safer' seat in north Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah pitching himself against G T Devegowda in Chamundeshwari assembly segment is reported to have not gone down well with the Vokkaliga community, who dominate the region.

In order to give Siddaramaiah a tough fight in Badami, the BJP fielded Sriramulu, a Scheduled Tribes leader from the town.

Shah has been saying that Siddarmaiah's defeat is imminent in both Chamundeshwari as well as Badami.

"The way bogus voter cards were made in a flat... the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way colour printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," the BJP president said.

To a query, Shah said B S Yeddyurappa would serve full term as chief minister (in the event of BJP coming to power).