Dubbing the Karnataka government “corrupt at all levels”, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah yesterday said the state’s people are waiting to throw out the ruling Congress in the upcoming assembly elections due in April.
“The countdown for the exit of the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has begun, as the people are waiting to throw it out lock, stock and barrel,” Shah said at a party’s rally in Holakere in the state’s central district, about 200km from Bengaluru.
Addressing over 50,000 people at the party’s “Nava Karnataka Parivarthana” rally, Shah said the Congress cadres were the only people to be happy with their government and no other section of society, be it women, farmers or youth - rural or urban.
“This government deserves to be thrown to the dustbin of history, as corruption is rampant and inefficiency permeates at all levels of governance,” Shah said.
The BJP, which came to power in the state for the first time after the 2008 assembly election, lost to the Congress in the 2013 poll following a split in its state unit and five years of “misrule” with three chief ministers at the helm.
Listing out various scams of the state government, Shah said the ruling Congress was involved in the Rs9bn Malaprabha river project, Rs1bn steel bridge project that was abandoned later, Rs3bn solar power project and denotification (releasing from government control) of about 1,800 lakes across the state, especially Bengaluru.
Accusing the government of misusing central funds, looting tax-payers’ money, farmers and fishermen, Shah said though the central government had given the southern state Rs3,000bn over the past 42 months under various schemes, the money did not reach the intended beneficiaries.
“The Modi government has provided Rs2,19,506 crore to Karnataka under the 14th Finance Commission and Rs79,000 crore under various schemes since 2014-15. I ask Siddaramaiah to furnish accounts as to what he did with so much money, as it did not reach the poor or its beneficiaries,” Shah said.
Blaming the Congress for indulging in minority appeasement and playing votebank politics, the BJP president said the chief minister had been indifferent to the killing of 21 workers of the BJP and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.






Related Story