Exhorting the people of Gadag in Karnataka to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an all out attack on the Congress in the poll-bound southern state.
Expressing confidence in the victory of his party in the 12 May assembly elections, the PM said that Congress will be reduced to only two states and within the family after the elections.
“After the Karnataka results, Congress will become ‘PPP Congress’ – Punjab, Puducherry and Parivar Congress,” he said in the city located 390 km from Bengaluru. Anil Mensinakai is the BJP candidate contesting from Gadag assembly seat.
Besides Karnataka, the Congress is in power in Punjab and Puducherry. The “Parivar Congress” remark was his dig at the Gandhi family – the BJP has constantly raised the dynasty charge at the party.
“It is the people of Karnataka who are going to make the Congress into a regional Party called PPP Congress,” Modi said.
Pointing out at the series of losses suffered by the Congress, the PM claimed that the people of India have rejected the party.
“The Congress has lost in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura,” he pointed out.
The PM also accused the Congress of not showing any concern for the depletion of natural resources in the region.
“As long as the pockets of their leaders are full, Congress is happy. Congress sees corruption opportunities in the forests of Karnataka. Corruption is key to the existence of the Congress,” the PM said, adding that the main reason why the Congress is worried about losing Karnataka is because of the corruption that the party’s leaders have indulged in.
In Gadag, the PM also said that the Congress was misleading the people on the Mahadayi river dispute.
“I wish the Karnataka CM (Siddaramaiah) would have asked Sonia Gandhi Ji about her 2007 promise on Mahadayi. If he would know of that promise he would not be misleading the people,” he said.
“In 2007, Sonia Gandhi made a speech in Goa saying Congress was committed not to allow diversion of Mahadayi waters to Karnataka. Now when they are out of power in Goa, they are now inciting people of Karnataka on the same issue,” he said.
Before addressing the people in Gadag, PM Modi accused the Congress of being anti-poor and anti-farmer at an election rally in Lingayat-dominated Tumakuru.
“Since the time of Indira Gandhi, the Congress kept saying ‘Gareeb, Gareeb, Gareeb’. Congress failed to transform the lives of the poor of India,” he said, asking, “What has the Congress done in the last 70 years?”
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The PM also mocked Congress leaders for claiming to be pro-farmer.
“People who can’t differentiate between red green chilly, and claim to produce gold from potatoes have now started chanting the name of farmers,” Modi said.
He also said that the Congress never tried to solve the water problem in Tumakuru. The PM said that his government has worked on irrigation projects pending for the last 30 years.
After Gadag, the PM will visit Shivamogga and Mangaluru to address public meetings scheduled in the districts.
This is his third visit to the state since 1 May ahead of the high-stakes elections in the southern state.