Bellary bypoll cannot define country's political direction, says BJP

New Delhi, Dec 4 (ANI): With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffering a humiliating defeat in the Bellary (Rural) Assembly constituency byelection, party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said the political direction of the country cannot be judged based on bypoll results.

In Karnataka, giving a jolt to ruling BJP, former Minister B Sreeramulu today won the Bellary (Rural) Assembly constituency byelection, which he contested as an independent after quitting the party, by a huge margin of over 46,000 votes.

Naqvi brushed aside the loss, saying there were still five more upcoming elections to contest.

"Everybody has seen the condition of the Congress party in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Haryana. In the coming days, there are going to be elections in five states and the Congress party is aware of the consequences that their party is going to face. As far as the bypolls are concerned, based on these bypolls, one cannot sense the political direction and political status of this country," he said.

Commenting on the government's decision to allow foreign direct investment into retail sector, Naqvi said the government was more concerned over the prosperity of foreign countries as opposed to its own.

"If you look at the government's intentions over the past week, it has been totally unacceptable. The government was behaving in such a way as if it has no worries about the prosperity of the country. Instead it is worried about the prosperity of the foreign countries," said Naqvi.

"That is why I said yesterday that I would like to suggest to the government that there can be an enemy in between foreign friends, and these are foreign medicines, which can have side effects. So, these foreign friends will affect them and the government should realise this fact," he added.

Naqvi further said the government would have to face an adjournment motion in Parliament if the decision to approve FDI was not withdrawn.

"Either they rollback their decision of bringing FDI into the retail sector and if they are not able to do so, then they will have to be ready to face the adjournment motion as there is no third way to it," he added.

The government had last month approved 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail, paving the entry of firms such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour into one of the world's largest untapped markets.

The new policy, seen as one of the most important government economic reforms in years, may commit supermarkets to strict local sourcing requirements and minimum investment levels aimed at protecting jobs. (ANI)