Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday strongly hit out at Congress and alleged that fighting the elections by depending on leaders who joined their party after leaving BJP goes on to show “bankruptcy” of Congress.

He also accused Congress of “insulting” the Lingayat community and “disrespecting” the two Lingayat Chief Ministers it had. Addressing a huge public rally in Karnataka’s Bagalokte, Amit Shah said, “Recently, 1-2 leaders left our party. Congress thinks that this will benefit them a lot. I want to tell Congress that this won’t be benefitting them at all. Congress has always insulted the Lingayat community. Congress made only two Lingayat Chief Ministers, S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil, and both of them were insulted and thrown out of the party”.

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“It clearly shows that there is bankruptcy in your party (Congress) when you fight elections depending on leaders who have joined Congress leaving the BJP,” he added.

Amit Shah further said that voting for the JD(S) means giving the vote to Congress.
If you don’t want your vote to go to Congress, then vote for BJP for the overall development of Karnataka. When BJP made Yediyurappa the CM, it was this Congress party which used JD(S) to remove him from the post. Today, again Congress wants to use our leaders for their purpose, but the people of Karnataka will never accept it,” he said.

The Home Minister stated that it is an election to make Karnataka a developed state and bring political stability here
“If Congress comes to power in Karnataka, there will be all-time high corruption, appeasement politics, familial politics and riots in the state. This Assembly election is not just to choose an MLA but to hand over the future of the state in to the hands of PM Modi,” he said.

The former BJP president also attacked the Congress party over the scrapping of 4 per cent Muslim reservation.

“Congress says it wants to restore the 4 per cent Muslim reservation, but I want to ask at what cost will it do so? Whose reservation will they cut? Of Lingayats, of Vokkaligas, or of the Dalits? This unconstitutional practice had been very much unfortunate, and it’s only the BJP which has ended it,” he said.

Amit Shah added, “We believe that there should be no reservation on the basis of religion. We extended the reservation quota for the SCs, STs, Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities. We are dedicated to the welfare of all, for the welfare of Karnataka”.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP won 104 seats and emerged as the single largest party, while the Congress and JD(S) bagged 78 and 37 seats, respectively.

The term of the 224-member Karnataka legislative assembly is set to end on May 24. Karnataka will go to polls on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13.