The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released its election manifesto for the 5th May assembly elections, the party promised free laptops for students and better waste management in the state.

The elections will be held in Karnataka on 5th May and counting will take place on 8th May.

The ruling BJP in the state has roped in its top national leaders to campaign, which is slated to begin on 21st April.

Announcing the campaign schedule, BJP state unit president Prahlad Joshi on Thursday rubbished media reports raising questions about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s involvement in electioneering.

Jaitley plays down BJP-JDU spat over Modi

Seeking to play down the discordant notes between BJP and its ally JDU over the Modi-for-PM issue, senior party leader Arun Jaitley has said there was no controversy on it and BJP wants to gain allies, not sacrifice any.

“I don’t think there is any controversy. ..as I have said Modi is certainly a very popular leader… certainly one of popular leaders of BJP. We are proud of that fact..”, the opposition leader in Rajya Sabha told reporters in Bangalore on Friday.

Jaitley was responding to questions over barbs between BJP and JDU the Modi issue and reports that his party former President Nitin Gadkari had told Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that his Gujarat counterpart would not be projected as prime ministerial candidate.

“The fact is that we cannot react to media news items like this. We are a structured party. The party, whenever it takes a formal decision (on prime ministerial candidate), we can react only then,” Jaitley said.

“When we decide our candidate, we will let you know,” he said.

Asked if the BJP would sacrifice Modi as the prime ministerial candidate to get more allies to NDA, “We are interested in gaining, not sacrificing.”

On possibility of a Third Front emerging as a stronger force than UPA or NDA in Lok Sabha polls, he said the third front was a failed idea. It had been experimented several times and on each occasion, it has been “a few months wonder.”

“I have always believed we live in an era of coalition governments. The anchor of a coalition has to be a major national party. The anchor of a coalition in a large country like India cannot be a party which has 20 or 30 seats in Parliament. Besides being vulnerable and fragile, Indian political history does not support the idea or inspire the idea of a third front”.