Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today said the ruling Congress' move to accord separate religion and minority status to Lingayats "will not have any impact" on the May 12 assembly polls.
"All sections of the society are going to vote for BJP to remove Siddaramaiah's bad governance and bring in fast-paced development," the BJP's Karnataka in-charge said.
His reaction came when reporters asked him about the reported move by some Lingayat seers to extend support to chief minister Siddaramaiah and Congress for proposing such status to the community.
Javadekar said knowing fully well that Manmohan Singh government had rejected the proposal in 2013, the Congress government brought this again to the fore, "only to stall B S Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister."
"People understand that this is Congress politics of divide and rule," he added.
He also wanted to know the reason for the Siddaramaiah government remaining silent on the issue (according separate religion and minority status to Lingayats) for the last four-and-a-half years.
Earlier, Javadekar released another'charge sheet' against the ruling Congress in Karnataka.
"UPA was involved in many scams and this has been continued during Siddaramaiah's rule in Karnataka," he said.
Javadekar alleged that the Congress has been involved in transferring and harassing public servants and police officials.
He cited a suicide of a police official and IAS officer as examples.
"Corruption coupled with illegal transfers and harassment of officials have given rise to lawlessness in the state. This is the hallmark of Siddaramaiah government," he said.
Javadekar had earlier released a Bengaluru-specific 'charge sheet' against the ruling Congress on March 1.
Releasing the booklet carrying the "failures" of the Congress government, Javadekar had saidBengaluru has been reduced to a "garbage and crime city" ever since Siddaramaiah took over as chief minister.
Javadekar today alleged land grabbers and sand mafia were ruling the roost in the state.
On BJP national president Amit Shah's remarks during a Mumbai rally equating opposition parties seeking to join hands against the BJP, to 'snakes, 'mongoose, 'dogs' and 'cats', Javadekar said "You have heard what he said. It was an analogy."
Shah later said his intention was not to equate opposition parties to animals.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)