Sounding the poll bugle and re-energising a sulking and faction-ridden state unit, BJP national president Amit Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Karnataka, declared: “Ab ki baar, BJP Sarkar”. To put all apprehensions to rest, he reiterated that former chief minister and state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa was BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the 2018 assembly elections.
At the end of marathon meetings on Monday afternoon, Shah threw a volley of questions at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, setting the tone for the saffron party's stepped-up campaign for the upcoming polls.
“Siddaramaiah is spreading false information about reduced central grants. In fact, the central grants to Karnataka, which was only Rs 61,691 crore during the UPA government, is now increased to Rs 1,86,925 crore (in the 14th Finance Commission). But the funds have not reached the dalit, the farmer or the marginalised groups, nor is it invested in infrastructure or used to expand irrigated land. Now, will Siddaramaiah tell us what happened to the huge grants given by the Modi government to Karnataka? When raids at the houses of Congress leaders and ministers take place, we come to know where all the money is going,” taunted Shah, dubbing Siddaramaiah government as the “most corrupt” and “shameless”.
“Siddaramaiah should stop asking what the Centre has done. He is heading a shameless government. Why did he not sack the tainted state energy minister (D.K. Shivakumar) following the Income Tax raids at his house? Siddaramaiah seems to proudly flaunt the corruption charges as a bagde of honour,” ridiculed Shah.
Ripping apart the chief minister's Ahinda “appeasement” strategy, Shah wanted to know how the 'crusader' of the backward classes could justify his party stalling the OBC bill in the Rajya Sabha.
“Siddaramaiah keeps talking about welfare of the backward classes. Now, will he explain as to why the Congress did not allow the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 (for constituting a National Commission for Backward Classes) to be passed in the Rajya Sabha? The NDA government is committed to passing the bill in both houses,” asserted the BJP president.
Dubbing the Congress' Ahinda “appeasement” as a threat to the law and order in the state, Shah claimed that in the last four years of the Congress rule, at least 20 RSS and BJP workers had been killed. “Will Siddaramaiah explain why his government withdrew cases against Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) activists, compromising the safety of the state?,” asked Shah.
He also dismissed the Congress' demand for a Kannada flag as “votebank politics”. “Why did he (Siddaramaiah) not raise the Kannada flag issue soon after his oath taking, and why is he raking it now, closer to the polls?,” he asked.
Taking a cue from Shah's aggressive pitch for the campaign, Yeddyurappa announced a statewide and week-long agitation against the Congress government, demanding the resignation of Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Small Scale Industries Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and KPCC women's wing president Lakshmi Hebbalkar, on whose houses Income Tax raids were conducted.
“The protests will begin on Friday. The chief minister has been always tolerant of corruption and corrupt people. The BJP, however, is a party committed to probity in public life and believes in corruption-free administration. The Siddaramaiah government has become an expert at giving clean chits to the ministers charged with misdemeanors,” he said.
Rahul to visit state again
If the saffron party went into a huddle in Bengaluru for three days to brainstorm on the ways to crack the crucial poll, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who addressed the “Samanatha Samavesha” in Raichur last Saturday, launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of making “false and hollow” promises.
“Neither the unemployment nor the farmers' crisis has reduced. They speak of Make in India, but no new factory has opened nor were any jobs generated. But the Siddaramaiah government has generated 30,000 jobs. The Congress ruled states, Karnataka and Punjab, have stood with the farmers,” said Rahul Gandhi, who will be again visiting Bengaluru this week to inaugurate the “Indira Canteens” (subsidised canteens).
