Modi begins K’taka campaign blitz, says BJP ‘storm’ coming
‘2 PLUS 1’ PM, CM Siddaramaiah trade barbs over poll formula
BENGALURU: Starting a whirlwind five-day, 15-rally push to get his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the halfway mark in the Karnataka assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that he saw a “storm,” not a “wave,” in favour of his party, targeted the state government for corruption, and ridiculed chief minister Siddaramaiah for what he termed a “2+1” strategy of contesting two constituencies even while handing over his own to his son.
Modi also highlighted his government’s achievements, including the latest one of electrifying all villages in the country, in one of the three rallies he addressed on Tuesday. Most opinion polls have predicted a hung assembly, with neither the Congress nor the BJP achieving a simple majority, leaving former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) in the enviable position of deciding who gets to form the next government in the state.
Modi dismissed concerns of a hung assembly and said his party would get a clear majority; however, he seemed to be keeping his options open by not targeting the JD(S), and mentioning his regard for Deve Gowda, albeit in the context of a comparison between how the Congress insults a senior leader, and he (Modi) doesn’t. “I even receive him at the door, hold his vehicle’s door open whenever we meet,” he added.
Reacting sharply, Siddaramaiah said this is a clear indication that both the parties have an internal understanding. And he pointed to the fact that Modi himself had contested two Lok Sabha seats in the last parliamentary elections, and gave his own spin to the “2+1” strategy on Twitter.