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Congress alleges Nadda threatened Kannadigas in Haveri: ‘Not subjects of a Raja’
Nadda's remark at a public meeting in Karnataka's Haveri seeking votes for Bommai and the BJP has triggered a controversy.
The Congress party on Wednesday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party president Jagat Prakash Nadda for allegedly threatening to “withhold constitutional rights” from the people of Karnataka if they don't vote for the incumbent BJP government in the upcoming assembly elections. Sharing a clip of Nadda's speech in poll-bound Karnataka, Congress alleged that it was a “blatant attack on democracy and shows how the BJP plans to treat the Kannadigas.”
On Wednesday, Nadda accompanied Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in filing his nomination for the assembly election from his traditional seat of Shiggaon in Haveri district amid fanfare. He later addressed a public meeting seeking votes for Bommai and the BJP, and said the nomination that Bommai was filing today was not just for the MLA's post, "but it is a way that will give direction for Karnataka to move ahead".
"Looking at your enthusiasm I'm sure that you have decided to send Bommai here to the Assembly for the next five years. I have not come here just to ask for Bommai from you, but have come to seek vote from you on the lotus symbol so that the 'Ganga' of continuous development keeps flowing in Karnataka," he said.
“Karnataka should not be deprived of the blessings of Modi ji, so I request you to make the lotus win and take forward the development of Karnataka,” the BJP president added, drawing flak from Congress.
“We are not subjects of a Raja but citizens of a federal country governed by the constitution,” Congress said in a tweet from the party's official handle.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said “There should be a limit to devotion too, Nadda ji.”
“Why are you threatening and scaring the people of Karnataka? With the blessings of the people of Karnataka, the Congress government is going to be formed,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Bommai won in Shiggaon in the 2018 Assembly polls by 9,260 votes. Congress had fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur, president of the Anjuman-e-Islam in Hubballi-Dharwad, to take on the CM but replaced him with Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan.
