No chance of hung assembly in Karnataka, Modi tells workers
BENGALURU: Interacting with party workers in the state through video conference ahead of the May 12 assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that there was a conspiracy afoot to play down the wave for change by publishing opinion polls that predicted a hung assembly in the upcoming polls.
“During my visits to the state I have seen the yearning for change, but people close to the Congress have started propagating a lie that there will be a hung assembly this time,” Modi said. “This is similar to 2014, when till the results came they kept saying it will be hung assembly.”
The prime minister appealed to party workers to keep asking the people to vote en masse for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ensure that it got a majority. “This conspiracy of hung assembly is being spread to mislead the people, who have seen the developmental work of the central government and want to join this.”
Modi said the one aspect where no party could defeat the BJP was its organsational strength. He said now that the battle lines had been drawn, it was duty of boothlevel workers to visit each and every voter and get the party’s message across.
“Our strategy is prepared using the knowledge of boothlevel workers, but the Congress battles on the basis of wealth, lies, dynastic politics and by spread- ing casteism. We take the country forward by bringing people together under the slogan of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas,” he said.
The prime minister said the BJP had only one aim and that was development, but the Congress, he said, based its strategy on divisiveness. “Every election they offer lollipops [sops] to one community, which then votes emotionally. In the next election they turn their attention to another community, forgetting the earlier one,” he said.
“If other parties are indulging in this kind of politics it is because of the Congress. Till we uproot the Congress mindset we cannot hope for change,” Modi said. According to him, while earlier the Congress mixed in about five lies in a list of 50 promises, that number had now increased to 45. “You have to fight against this attempt to spread lies. Foreign companies will be hired to misguide you, and at such a moment, workers should not waver. We must move ahead on the basis of our work,” warned Modi.
With 15 days left for the polls, Modi said it was time that every party worker was given about 10 families to visit.
“Every worker should be given a list of families they should be in touch with, and they should be in touch with those families till the day of voting.”
The Congress, however, termed Modi’s statements as false and baseless. “It is not acceptable for the Prime Minister to not have the command on facts. If anything it is the BJP that is desperate to project this as a close race, because the Congress will win a resounding victory in the elections,” party leader Rajeev Gowda said.
He added that polarisation was the policy that the BJP had followed and it would rely on this once again in Karnataka in its desperation.
“The Prime Minister is stooping to levels that were previously unheard of. In their desperation for a victory they have even brought back the Reddy brothers,” he said.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah spotted an old colleague from his Janata Dal (Secular) days when he was addressing a gathering from his campaign vehicle on Wednesday in Chaumundeshwari, his old assembly segment. He called out and asked him to vote for him. But the former colleague, Mariswamy, proclaimed aloud his loyalty to the JD(S) and accused the chief minister of failing to appoint a Dalit as his deputy. Siddaramaiah recovered quickly from the riposte and asked the crowd to vote for him, even if Mariswamy voted for the JD(S). Mariswamy had a surprise visitor at his home the next day — former chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy. He was honoured by the JD(S) state president for standing by the party.
PThe Congress has been attacking the BJP on social media and poll advertisements for giving tickets to the extended clan of the Reddy brothers, the controversial mining barons of Bellary.
The Congress says the Reddys epitomise the loot of the state’s mineral wealth.
BJP chief Amit Shah has distanced the party from Janardhana Reddy, who is out on bail after three years in jail, while state party leaders called the Congress accusations “hypocrisy”.
The BJP countered that the Congress’s Santosh Lad and Anil Lad are also mired in illegal mining cases. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had briefly arrested Anil Lad.
“Anand Singh, the MLA for Vijaynagara, was with the BJP till recently. He quit and crossed over to the Congress. As long as he was with us, he was an illegal mining baron, but moment he joined the Congress, he has become clean,” says a BJP leader requesting anonymity. oliticians don’t retire, they mature with age. So goes the adage and five octogenarians are out to prove the axiom in the May 12 Karnataka assembly polls. The oldest is 87-year-old Kagodu Thimappa, a backward-class leader, a former speaker of the assembly and revenue minister in the Siddaramiah government. Thimappa is the Congress candidate for Sagara in Shivamogga district. His campaign received a boost after nephew Belur Gopalakrishna, a former minister in the BS Yeddyurappa cabinet quit the BJP for being denied a ticket and joined forces with his uncle. The other Congress octogenarians are 86-year-old Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the Veerashaiva strongman contesting from Davangere South, and 82-year-old AB Malka Reddy, the candidate for Yadgir constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) have given a ticket each to octogenarians. BJP’S 82-year-old CM Udasi is contesting from Hangal and MC Managoli, who is of the same age, is the JD(S) nominee for Sindagi.