All-India Congress Committee General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka K.V. Venugopal, on Saturday, challenged the opposition BJP for an open debate on the issue of corruption in the government and asked the the BJP to fix the venue, date and time for the same.
Mr. Venugopal, who chaired a meetings of various wings of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), rubbished allegations of corruption in the government levelled by BJP’s national General Secretary in-charge of State Muralidhara Rao.
A few days ago, the state unit of the BJP has decided to prepare a “charge sheet” on “corruption scandals” of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government and distribute it across the state.
Mr. Venugopal instructed leaders and the head of the media wing to activate the social and digital media of the party to reach out to the public on various pro-poor policies implemented by the Government. He told party leaders to not refrain from issuing statements rebutting charges made by the BJP and JD(S) leaders on corruption in the government.
The Congress leader also said there was no difference of opinion between KPCC president G. Parameshwara and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Both leaders would collectively work during the 2018 election and bring the party back to power.
On the issue of murder of senior journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, Mr. Venugopal said he was confident that the killers would be nabbed in a few days. The BJP leaders had no moral right to speak on killing of the journalist when leaders of the party did not even attend the funeral, he charged.