The last session of the 14th Assembly provided a platform for the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP to turn on the poll heat on each other.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah led the Congress’ charge by describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “facilitator of corruption” and the BJP as the “Gangotri of corruption”.
Political one-upmanship dominated the proceedings with the BJP members resorting to a dharna in the well of the House, forcing Mr. Siddaramaiah to cut short his reply to the debate on State budget. The Chief Minister retaliated by launching an attack on BJP leaders. At one point, protesting BJP members tore copies of various Bills.
Mr. Siddaramaiah began his reply to the debate on budget by thanking the legislators for cooperating with him and remarked in a lighter vein that all of them should return to the Assembly by winning the next elections. But, the air of bonhomie disappeared when he defended the “sanctity” of presenting a full-fledged budget just ahead of the Assembly polls, arguing that he was fully confident of returning to power.
The BJP members began a dharna when Congress MLA K.N. Rajanna referred to the Nirav Modi episode and accused the NDA government of turning down the request to waive farm loans but letting off Nirav Modi.
Taking exception to the BJP’s protest, Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that the Prime Minister had desisted from committing himself when a State delegation had met him with a request to waive farmers’ loans taken from nationalised banks. He accused the State BJP leaders of keeping mum instead of putting pressure on Mr. Modi. He accused the BJP of being a fountainhead of corruption. He also denied the allegation of burdening the State with loans, by reeling out statistics to prove that several BJP-ruled States had borrowed more loans than Karnataka.
All Bills were adopted without any debate as the BJP members refused to withdraw their dharna.
‘I would have evicted you’
Angered by the BJP members’ dharna in the Assembly that came in the way of his reply to the debate on budget, Mr. Siddaramaiah told them: “I would have taught you a fitting lesson if it was not the last day of the legislature session”. He said he would have convinced the Speaker to evict them from the House if it was any other day.
I told PM that Congress will retain power: CM
Maintaining that the BJP cannot even dream of returning to power in the State, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had told this to none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Mysuru.
“When I received the Prime Minister in Mysuru, I told him that we (Congress) are certain to retain power and I said I am ready to address the BJP convention along with him and say this. The Prime minister only smiled,” Mr. Siddaramaiah told the Assembly.
