Campaigning in K’taka ends
POLL SATURDAY As BJP launches blitz on last day, Rahul says ‘my mother more Indian than many Indians I’ve seen’ NEW DELHI:
The bitter campaign for Karnataka came to a close on Thursday but not before the BJP and the Congress had a go at each other again and senior leaders making one final push to win support ahead of May 12, the polling day.
The two rivals have traded charges over corruption, alleged misgovernance and on many occasions the accusations have been personal.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led the BJP charge, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has toured the state, one of the four where the party is in power, extensively to drump up support
On Thursday, the BJP blitzkrieg saw 34 leaders, including Amit Shah and several union ministers, hold rallies and 52 road shows while Modi, who addressed 21 rallies in the six days since May 1, chose to address party’s SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers through his Namo App.
Rahul Gandhi held a press conference to launch a blistering attack on Modi.
Hitting out at PM for his reference to his mother Sonia’s foreign origin, Gandhi said, “My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.”
Speaking to media a few hours later, Shah claimed the BJP would win at least 130 seats in the 224-member assembly, saying there was “palpable public anger” against the Siddaramiah government.
“The Congress is so desperate it is employing unfair means...it wants to win the assembly election by hook or by crook,” Shah said, alleging Congress activists were behind the fake voter ID cards seized in Bengaluru’s Rajrajeshwar Nagar.
Shah also held a road show in Badami one of the two seats from where chief minister Siddaramaiah is in the fray.
The BJP was in “panic” because it had realised the Congress was doing things differently, Gandhi said, pointing to the large number of ministers and party leaders taking the field on Thursday.
Modi saw him as a “threat” and his comments were a diversionary tactic, Gandhi said responding to a question about the PM calling the Congress leader arrogant for the statement he was ready to be PM if the Congress were to emerge as the largest party in 2019.
He said the BJP was “uncomfortable” about his temple visits. “I don’t think they understand the term Hindu, because the term Hindu is a perspective, it is something that is in the heart, it is imbibed,” Gandhi said.
Modi, who was attacked by Gandhi over violence against weaker sections, said there was no place for Dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress.
His government, Modi said, was trying to ensure social justice and equality and had made the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) act more stringent.
The government came under fire from opposition for not doing enough after the Supreme Court barred automatic arrests under the atrocities act.