Dharwad: From time immemorial, teachers have been playing the lead role in shaping the career of the students and contributing for the human resource development of the country. They never thought on meeting selfish deeds but have been rendering Yeoman's service to the society, stated Union Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar.

He noted this while addressing the teachers at JSS College at Vidyagiri in Dharwad as part of election campaign for BJP candidate M Nagaraj contesting for Upper House from Karnataka West Teachers' constituency.

He said, in Karnataka West Teachers' constituency it is a battle between a national party and a person who thinks he is above his party.

The teachers who are considered as the intellectual property of the nation, have to decide, whether thay would vote a national party (BJP) for overall development, or a person (Mr Horatti) who is individual centric, he said.

He said, during the UPA government, the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyaan was stopped. However, the present NDA government is funding heavily for this project, and a sum of Rs 63,000 crore is reserved for education sector in this year budget, he said.

This government has constructed toilets at 4.5 lakh government girls high schools and 416 skill development programmes have been launched.

Thereby, he said, the teachers have to vote for BJP candidate and the result of this election will be an indicator for the 2018 assembly polls, the minister said.

MP Pralhad Joshi, MLA Arvind Bellad, Dr Ajit Prasad, BJP leaders, corporators, and others were present.