Modi promises to give back ‘Kempe Gowda’s Bengaluru’

Making a strong pitch for the BJP in the city, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to give back “Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda’s Bengaluru” if voted to power.

Coming down on the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, he said in their five-year tenure they had converted the “Silicon Valley to a Valley of Sin, Garden City to Garbage City, Computer Capital to Crime Capital, startup hub to pothole hub” and alleged that they degenerated the “cosmopolitan culture of the city to a culture of chaos”.

Steel bridge also figured prominently in his speech. Terming it “steal bridge”, he said “a ganga of money was flowing below the bridge into the houses of Ministers”, but credited the BJP for forcing the State government to backtrack on the project. Calling the government to have won a gold medal of corruption, he said the focus of many Ministers was in land mafia on the outskirts of the city. Hitting hard at the Congress for “lack of law and order” in the city, he said that party was supporting “goondagiri” as was evident in its protection to the son of a Congress MLA who attacked other customers at a café and a Congress worker who attempted to set fire to a government office.

Taking up the issue of Bellandur lake, he said the Congress had converted a city of lakes of Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda into a city of burning lakes, and lack of sewerage infrastructure was the chief cause. He said BJP would work towards rejuvenating all lakes. He also criticised the State government for low spending on Smart City projects despite generous funds from the Union government. “We have provided ₹836 crore for the State to develop seven cities, including Bengaluru, into smart cities. But the government has till date spent only ₹12 crore,” he alleged. Terming the Congress manifesto a “hawa hawai manifesto”, he said the Congress made claims that were impossible to achieve to fool people.

Krishna at the venue

S.M. Krishna, who was maintaining a low profile and was said to be not very happy with the BJP affairs, made his appearance at the election rally on Thursday. Making his entry to loud cheers from the audience minutes after the Prime Minister started his speech, Mr. Krishna was the centre of attraction through the rally. Mr. Modi had to interrupt his speech and greet Mr. Krishna.