Congress leaders target Modi, BSY at campaign launch

Bengaluru, Sept 24: The Congress on Saturday kick-started its statewide door-to-door campaign ‘Mane Manege Congress’ from Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other party leaders trained their guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa.

The party leaders, including Siddaramaiah and AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal, visited many houses in Ramagondanahalli in Mahadevapura and distributed a 32-page booklet highlighting the Congress government’s achievements over the past four years and the BJP-led Centre’s “failures”.

The party has drawn up a plan to reach every household under 54,246 booths across the state till October 15, as part of the campaign. “Narendra Modi said there will be sabkasaath, sabkavikas. Only capitalists and industrialists have gained, while the poor have remained poor,” Siddaramaiah said in an unusually animated address.

The chief minister used the welfare plank to reach out to voters, recounting several schemes the government has launched till date. “Modi’s motto is Mann ki Baat. Ours is Kaam ki Baat,” he said. 

‘BJP leaders have no guts’

Siddaramaiah targeted Yeddyurappa and other state BJP leaders on the issue of farm loan waiver. “I told the BJP that they have to put pressure on Modi to waive Rs 42,000 crore loans farmers had borrowed from nationalised and grameen banks. But they don’t have the ‘meter’ to do that,” he said. Colloquially, the word ‘meter’ refers to guts or courage.

Further, Siddaramaiah called Yeddyurappa “Karnataka’s most hypocritical politician”, referring to the latter’s claims that he would prove the chief minister’s corruption. “The BJP has now started using the Income Tax department against our leaders D K Shivakumar, Ramesh Jarkiholi and M T B Nagaraj. No matter what the BJP, or even the JD(S) does, Congress will come back to power.”

Venugopal said he would review the campaign a month later.

“From booth-level workers to chief minister, everybody must participate in the campaign,” he instructed.