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Rahul sets 150-seat target for Cong, terms BJP govt ‘corrupt’
The 40% government remark referred to the accusations filed by contractors in the state accusing the government of demanding commissions of up to 40% to award public work tenders.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the Centre and the Basavaraj Bommai-led Karnataka government over issues like corruption and polarisation, kicking off the party’s 2023 assembly election campaign.
“If today Narendra Modi comes to Karnataka and talks about corruption, the government (state), which has become 40% government, Congress is not saying this, contractors are saying this and the PM comes and says I want to fight corruption, then the entire state will probably start laughing,” he said.
The 40% government remark referred to the accusations filed by contractors in the state accusing the government of demanding commissions of up to 40% to award public work tenders.
Gandhi is on a two-day visit to Karnataka during which he visited the Siddaganga Ashram in Tumakuru to take part in the 115th birth anniversary of Sri Shivakumara Swami, one of the most influential and revered seers in the state and interacted with his party leaders to prepare for next year’s elections.
He told the Congress leaders to take up issues of unemployment, economy, price rise and collapse of small and medium industries “on account of the BJP’s policies”.
He said that the BJP aimed to take money and strength from the poor and hand it to a handful of industrialists, which he called a kind of “financial transfer mechanism” while polarising the people.
“The method is what we call polarisation. Make one religion fight another, one caste group fight another, and amid the fight, BJP will take up all the resources and hand it a few industrialists,” he said.
The Congress party, nationally, is banking on Karnataka to help revive the Sonia Gandhi-led outfit as it is one of the few states where the party has a solid presence.
“We are faced with an election in Karnataka. Karnataka has always had the spirit of the Congress party. This is a natural Congress state,” Gandhi said.
He set a target of winning 150 seats in the 2023 assembly elections, which would help the party win decisively.
He even set three principles for the party: the 150-target, promoting people based on merit and rewarding those workers who have fought on various issues and loyally to the party.
The cold war between state unit president DK Shivakumar and leader of the opposition Siddaramaiah is well known but vehemently denied.
“The most important thing is that you (leaders) have to fight together. It is your biggest responsibility. You are already doing it but you have to do it in a much deeper way,” Gandhi said, referring to Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, Mallikarjuna Kharge and other top leaders.
