On a hectic day of campaigning and making his last public speech here on Tuesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah continued his attack against BJP prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his ‘development model’.
Addressing the gathering at Nehru Stadium, Mr. Siddaramaiah called Mr. Modi a person who lacked “humaneness”.
Mr. Siddaramaiah reiterated that he hadn’t seen the ‘Modi wave’ anywhere in the State and said the BJP’s claim about it was “false”.
“If Mr. Modi was really that confident about becoming Prime Minister then there is no need for him to contest from two constituencies. The Modi wave is artificial. The Congress won in several places where Mr. Modi campaigned in Karnataka during the Assembly elections,” he said.
On development
Questioning Mr. Modi’s claims of development, he said that while Mr. Modi was Chief Minister, the debt burden had increased to Rs. 1,76,000 crore from Rs. 42,000 crore, and Gujarat was in first position in terms of infant mortality rate and was in the ninth position in terms of development. “In industry, Karnataka has pushed Gujarat to the third position now,” he added.
“Even in the BJP manifesto, there are no real programmes for the welfare of Dalits, women and farmers, but there is a mention of building the Ram Mandir. The real responsibility of a political party is not building temples, but building houses and improving lives of poor people,” he said.
Referring to senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj, he said that they had no face to campaign in Karnataka because the BJP had welcomed back politicians facing serious charges of corruption.
On Pralhad Joshi
Criticising BJP State president Pralhad Joshi, he alleged that as Mr. Joshi had not made any contribution for the development of his constituency in the previous two terms, he was seeking votes in the name of Mr. Modi.
Earlier, the former Union Minister C.M. Ibrahim lambasted the BJP as well as Mr. Modi and Mr. Joshi. He said that instead of building houses for people, the BJP and its leaders were focusing on building a temple.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil said that Mr. Modi had made a mockery of the family system in the country by not admitting he was married till the last minute.
Congress candidate and MLA Vinay Kulkarni appealed to people to vote. The former Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader P.C. Siddanagoudar was welcomed into the Congress by Mr. Siddaramaiah.
A host of Congress leaders, including former Ministers and MPs and Prasad Abbayya, C.S. Shivalli, MLAs, attended the public meeting.
