Celebrating Tipu Jayanthi or indulging in votebank politics will do no good to Karnataka, mocked BJP national president Amit Shah, who was speaking at the launch of the BJP's 'Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivarthana Yatra' in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Slamming the Congress government in the state, Shah charged that the Siddaramaiah government had broken all records in corruption and the BJP's “Parivarthana Yatra” is to expose this corruption.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is more enthusiastic to celebrate Tipu Jayanthi on November 10 than celebrate Kannada Rajyothsava. Karnataka will not benefit from celebrating Tipu Jayanthi or the votebank politics. Siddaramaiah ji, at least 10 RSS/BJP men have been killed in Karnataka. Do you have an answer for it? You are not worried about national security or safety of Karnataka and that is why you withdrew the cases against SDPI,” mocked Shah.
With the rally being flagged off, the saffron party kick-started its election campaign for the 2018 Assembly polls. BJP's chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday has embarked on the 75-day rally in a specially designed bus, which will pass through all the 224 assembly constituencies in the state. While a bike rally of BJP volunteers from South Karnataka took part in the flagging off of the Parivarthanaa rally, a similar rally is planned to held in Mid-December at Hubli to galvanise supporters from North Karnataka region, before the rally culminates in Bengaluru or Mysuru on January 28, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“For the next 80 days, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate and future CM of Karnataka will tour the state to expose the corruption of the Congress government,” said Shah, elaborating on why the BJP named the rally as “Parivarthana”.
“What do we want to change? It is not the CM, the government, the MLAs or ministers alone. We want to change the status quo in Karnataka, the pathetic condition of the farmers, youth and the law and order situation. We want to replace the corrupt government with a government lead by Modi and Yeddyurappa who can give a transparent and honest governance,” said Shah.
On the allegations of corruption in the Siddaramaiah government, Shah said Karnataka had been ranked as “most corrupt” by a media survey. “The Siddaramaiah government had misused huge amounts central funds. The Modi government at the Centre has allocated more funds to Karnataka than the UPA. Karnataka's share of funds in the 13th finance commission under the UPA rule was Rs 88,583 crore. This was increased 2.5 times (to Rs 2.9 lakh crore) by us. Karnataka got Mudra loans (Rs 39,000 crore) and funds for SmartCity (Rs 960 crore), Amrut (4,900 crore), Bangalore Metro (Rs 2,617 crore) and Railway projects (Rs 2,197 crore) among others. But these funds have not reached the people. Where did all the money go?,” asked Shah.
“Allegations of corruption surface; recovery of wealth and diaries hint at corruption. One after the other the Congress ministers are caught in scams, be it steel-bridge, real estate mafia usurping 1,500 lakes, the weakening of Lokayuka, or the transfer scam. The Siddaramaiah government has broken all records of corruption,” said Shah.
Yeddyurappa and other party leaders waving to the crowd during their 'Parivarthana Yatra' in Bengaluru
Earlier, Yeddyurappa exhorted the booth level party workers to turn up in large numbers in all districts to make the rally a success. “The rally is to strengthen the party and to throw out the corrupt Congress government. The Siddaramaiah government has discontinued pro-farmer and pro-poor schemes launched during the BJP rule. The BJP's schemes like Suvarna Bhoomi, Suvarna Grama, Bicycle for schoolchildren, the Bhagyalakshmi bond for girl child, subsidy for drip irrigation and organic farming have been neglected by the Congress government. The Lokayukta is rendered powerless while Siddaramaiah has constituted anti-corruption bureau to protect the corrupt,” he said.
Yeddyurappa also said that the chief minister is protecting Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George, though an FIR was filed against him in the DySP M.K. Ganapathy (death) case.
Meanwhile, the ruling Congress, which is keeping a close watch on the 'Parivarthana' rally, was quick to dismiss the rally as 'inconsequential'.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who held a meeting of senior police officers told reporters that BJP was taking out the rally to disturb the communal harmony and peace in the state.
Siddaramaiah also dubbed the 'Parivarthana' rally as a failure saying, “The thin attendance at the rally shows that people are not with the BJP. It has failed on the very first day. We have not stopped anybody from attending the rally. Last time, we had denied permission for bike rally in Mangalore fearing it would disturb communal harmony. But this time, we have not stopped any one. The BJP should undergo “Parivarthanaa” (transformation) as they are communal and need to become secular. Moreover, look who is talking about corruption. BJP state president was jailed over corruption charges and BJP national president has also spent time in jail,” mocked Siddaramaiah.
