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Congress, BJP trade charges amid yatras
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and is currently walking across districts in Karnataka while the BJP too has kicked off its poll campaign in the form of Janasankalpa Yatra, which was in Ballari on Wednesday.
The Congress party and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday traded charges of graft, inefficiency and vote-bank politics as the two main national parties in Karnataka undertake yatras to mobilise support ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and is currently walking across districts in Karnataka while the BJP too has kicked off its poll campaign in the form of Janasankalpa Yatra, which was in Ballari on Wednesday.
Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition in Karnataka, on Wednesday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “coward” for not holding a single press conference since 2014 but his party, the BJP, were resorting to calling Rahul Gandhi names.
“Instead of calling Shri Rahul Gandhi by names, ask your coward @narendramodi to address a press conference & answer the questions raised by the journalists,” Siddaramaiah said in a series of posts on Twitter.
“Former CM @BSYBJP (BS Yediyurappa) & the present CM @BSBommai is on a Janasankalpa Yatra. I want to challenge them on 2 things. 1. Get down of the car & walk for 4Km without falling down. 2. Do a 5 minute speech without taking the name of Siddaramaiah,” the former chief minister said in another post.
The two parties have been trying to corner the other over various allegations and earn the support of the people that will improve their chances for a shot at power in next year’s elections.
“The Congress party is scared politically as they had forgotten when it was in power and now it is a sinking ship,” Basavaraj Bommai, the chief minister said in Hospet .
“You shut Lokayukta and started the Anti-Corruption Bureau to cover up corruption during your tenure. Now the lokayukta is strengthened and all your scams are coming out. All omissions and commissions committed by you will be enquired and punishment is sure for those who are guilty. The corruption of Congress is uncovered now,” he added.
Referring to Yediyurappa as “Rajahuli” (loosely translates to alpha lion), Bommai said the Congress is rattled by the former chief minister and senior BJP leader’s ‘roar’.
“You tried to rein in Yediyurappa and filed false cases to keep him away from power but he came back like a sphinx and became the CM again,” Bommai said.
The chief minister attacked Siddaramaiah, the person who has been at the forefront of attacks against the BJP and Prime Minister Modi.
He said Rahul Gandhi has tried patching up differences between state Congress president DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah.
“The concept of two nations was given to Mountbatten and Mohammed Ali Jinnah placed it. But it was the Congress Party, just for the sake of power, that neglected Gandhiji’s words and divided the nation. They broke the country into pieces then and now it is doing Bharath Jodo yatra. It was former PM Indira Gandhi who supported Khalistan and the Congress party supported LTTE in Tamil Nadu. Just for their selfishness, the Congress leaders did an unpardonable blunder,” Bommai said.
