Air strikes to help BJP win 22 seats in K'taka, says BSY

The former Karnataka CM said the IAF air strikes on JeM have turned the tide in PM Narendra Modi's favour, as the youth is happy after the attack.

Chitradurga: Karnataka BJP chief and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa said that the IAF air strikes on JeM terror camps have tilted things in PM Modi's favour, and will help the party win 22 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"The recent incident of armed forces attacking Pakistan has turned the tide in Narendra Modi's favour, as the youth is happy after the attack. It will help us win 22 seats in Karnataka," he told reporters here on Wednesday.

The statement drew strong criticism from the Opposition, with Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy calling it 'shameful'.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "The entire nation is united in supporting the central govt&our armed forces to fight terrorism, while #Bjp leader @BSYBJP is busy calculating how many extra LS seats the terror attack&Pak war can bring to his party. It's shameful to exploit our jawans' sacrifice for electoral gains"

India on Tuesday carried out air strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror training camps in Pakistan, in which a "large number of terrorists" were killed, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had said in a statement.

The air strikes were carried out in the aftermath of the February 14 terrorist attack carried out by the JeM on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, which claimed the lives of at least 40 CRPF personnel.

There are 28 seats at stake in Karnataka, out of which the BJP currently holds 16 seats, while the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) hold 10 and 2 Lok Sabha seats respectively.

(With inputs from ANI)