Congress government has pushed Karnataka five years back: Yogi Adityanath

BENGALURU: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today alleged that the Congress government in Karnataka had pushed the state five years back "due to corruption, divisive politics and anti-development policies".

He alleged that as the assembly elections, due early this year, neared, the Congress had resorted to dividing society on the lines of caste.

"The party has become a burden...a problem for the nation," Adityanath claimed.

"Because of corruption, its divisive politics and its anti-development policies, Karnataka has been pushed five years back. The corrupt Congress is using Karnataka as its ATM," he claimed at a public rally.

The UP chief minister took a jibe at his Karnataka counterpart, Siddaramaiah, saying he was only now recalling his Hindu roots.

"Siddaramaiah calls himself a Hindu just as Congress president Rahul Gandhi went to temple after temple during the Gujarat election," he claimed.

However, calling himself a Hindu will not suffice till he continues to endorse eating beef, Adityanath claimed.

"When the BJP government was there in Karnataka it had passed an anti-cow slaughter law, but the Congress revoked the it," he added.

Adityanath said development would not gain momentum in Karnataka unless there was synchronicity in the thinking process between the BJP-ruled Centre and the state's chief minister.

He also recalled the connection between Gorakhnath Peeth, the main seat of the Nath tradition, which he heads, Manjunath Swamy temple in Dharmasthala and Adi Chunchunagiri Math in Karnataka, saying, "These unifying factors of India were always ignored by the Congress." He hit out at Siddaramaiah for the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state, claiming that in five years 22 people affiliated to the RSS or the Sangh Parivar were killed.

In contrast, there were no instances of communal violence in 10 months in Uttar Pradesh, since he took over as chief minister, Adityanath claimed.

He blamed the Congress for disrupting Rajya Sabha over the Centre's move to get a bill on triple talaq passed and alleged that the party was "anti-Muslim" and "anti-women".