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Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit out at the BJP at an election rally in Mandya on Wednesday, April 17, and accused it of raising only emotive issues to divide the people.
The rally that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed was significant as the Congress is involved in a direct contest with the Janata Dal (Secular) whose president H.D. Kumaraswamy is in the fray. The JD(S) is in alliance with the BJP which has not fielded any candidate in Mandya and hence, it is a clash of the arch-rivals to harness the Vokkaliga votes in their heartland.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the forthcoming elections are a clash of two divergent ideologies and while Congress stood for honesty and integrity, BJP was representative of falsehood and divisiveness.
BJP has ignored livelihood issues affecting the people and was content raising emotive ones to divide people on religious lines, said Mr. Siddaramaiah. Launching a no-holds-barred attack on Mr. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that he could not get his son elected in the 2019 elections and was now contesting from Mandya for the Parliamentary seat though he is an elected MLA from Channapatana in Bengaluru rural. ‘’The fear of defeat is staring at him in Bengaluru rural and hence Mr. Kumaraswamy has shifted to Mandya but his defeat is certain,’’ said Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Launching a diatribe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that not one promise made in the run-up to the 2014 Parliamentary elections has been fulfilled be it doubling farmers’ income, bringing black money, reducing prices of essential commodities or creating jobs for the youth.
Though Mr. Modi promised good days, it has not materialised and the plight of the poor continues to be miserable, said Mr. Siddaramaiah who sought to contrast the BJP’s performance with the implementation of the give guarantee schemes by the Congress in the State.
He pointed out that though the BJP had won 25 seats on its own out of 28 seats in Karnataka, none of them had the courage to raise issues pertaining to the State and hence were guilty of betraying the interest of people of Karnataka.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Congress had earmarked adequate funds for the development of Mandya including the establishment of a new sugar factory while a new agricultural university was also set to be established at the VC Farm campus.
Mekedatu
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the Congress was committed to the development of the State and was committed to take up the Mekedatu project during the tenure of the present Government itself.
KPCC working president Tanvir Sait, district in-charge Minister Cheluvarayaswamy and others were present.
