Bengaluru, Feb 20: Not too long ago, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were the only targets in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll speeches. But this has changed in recent times.
While the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government was under attack during the Karnataka assembly polls last year, now the PM is taking a dig at the JD(S)-Congress government helmed by HD Kumaraswamy.
An analysis of Modi’s speeches from the Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka and elsewhere suggests they have undergone a massive change since 2014 and become increasingly regional. Kumaraswamy’s crop loan waiver scheme has been the main focus in the PM’s last five speeches.
‘Cong strategy troubling BJP’
Political analyst Harish Ramaswamy explained: “Karnataka at present is a state which is guiding other federal models of coalition, with a national party playing fiddle to a regional party. This is the model Congress is interested to sell across the country to make others believe that it’s genuinely interested in a federal structure against its own history. This strategy is troubling BJP as this does not allow the saffron party to split these votes.”
“Moreover, it is JD(S) which is at the centre leading the Mahagathbhandhan (grand alliance). Hence, this strategy to break the alliance by bashing Kumaraswamy and his schemes to demoralise the coalition,” Ramaswamy added.
Sandeep Shastri, another political analyst, said Karnataka is critical for the BJP in the LS polls as it sees a second term. “No other state in the south can afford them a chance to do well. The farm loan policy of the JDS-Congress government is its USP, so by attacking it, the BJP is challenging the state government’s credentials to bolster its own prospects,” he added.
Vishwas Shetty, a political commentator who was part of the ‘friends of BJP’ campaign, said Modi has sharpened his attack on the coalition government for two reasons. He wants to portray that coalition governments are bound to become a disaster for the country by highlighting the frequent tussles between JD(S) and Congress in Karnataka. Also, Modi knows that regional satraps wield more influence than Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka and other southern states, he said.
What PM said in his recent speeches
* They (JDS-Congress) made tall promises to farmers on waiving loans, but are now offering “lollipops”. Of 43 lakh farmers, so far only 60,000 have benefited.
* You decide whether you want a mazboot sarkar or majboor sarkar. Your chief minister (Kumaraswamy) is the most helpless CM heading a majboor government. Is this a model they want for the country?
*It is very sad. The JDS-Congress government’s loan waivers are a ‘cruel joke on farmers’
*HD Kumarswamy said he was working like a clerk and not a chief minister since he is under pressure from Congress leaders. These incidents are trailers of the grand alliance.
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