Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the Congress’ list of candidates for the coming Assembly elections would be finalised in January 2018 and the budget would be presented in February.
Speaking to reporters after laying the foundation stone for various development works in Chennagiri Assembly Constituency in Davangere district on Saturday, he said that the party candidates for the elections would be finalised based on the opinions of the party workers and the block Congress presidents.
“The Congress has candidates for all the 224 constituencies in the State but the BJP has no candidate in many constituencies, including Mysuru. Many BJP and Janata Dal(S) candidates have approached Congress leaders for ticket. This clearly shows the popularity of the Congress in the State,” he added. The rallies and campaigns launched by the BJP and Janata Dal(S) have completely failed and the people have rejected those two parties. “The leaders of the BJP and Janata Dal(S) are trying to bring people to their campaigns and rallies by offering them gifts and money,” he said.
The BJP is trying to divide people on communal grounds to come to power. So they are opposing programmes such as Tipu Jayanti. “Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde, who is trying to divide people on communal grounds, has been made Minister in the Union Cabinet. Such persons would always try to spoil peace in society,” he added. If the BJP leaders have real concern for farmers, they should appeal to the Union government to waive loans of farmers. Instead of staging dharna outside the Vidhana Soudha, they should pressure the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to waive loans of farmers, he advised them.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also said that he was ready for an open discussion with the BJP and Janata Dal(S) leaders with regard to development works and the scam-free governance in the last four years.
Minister for Horticulture S.S. Mallikarjun, MLAs and MLCs were present.