Making all-out attempts to wrest Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, which is held by the BJP for nearly three decades now, leaders at the Congress Parivartana rally on Wednesday launched a tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.
Addressing the rally here, the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said there were three girakis (fellows) in the BJP who were experts in setting fire — Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde and MPs Mr. Kateel and Pratap Simha. Having done nothing on the development front, these MPs are dividing society on communal lines and disturbing harmony, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the MP has failed to respond to arecanut growers’ woes when their plantations were affected by fruit-rot disease or when arecanut price fell. Pepper and rubber growers too were affected by falling price. The Union government is not curbing cheap imports of these produces as family members of senior BJP leaders are involved in the scam, he alleged.
Attempting to regain the lost voter-base in the coastal region, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Centre has done nothing to trace fishermen from Udupi who have been missing for over 80 days. Oppressed classes in the region were living under constant fear ever since the Modi government came to power, he said.
A section of the participants at the Congress Parivartana rally in Mangaluru on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Congress was a force to reckon with in the coast once upon a time. Even during the 2013 Assembly polls, the coast had elected 13 Congress MLAs out of 19 seats. The BJP has now grabbed 17 seats only through communal divide, he alleged.
Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that Mr. Modi had failed to deliver even a single promise made before the 2014 polls. On the other hand, he as the Chief Minister had fulfilled all the 165 promises made before the 2013 Assembly polls, he said.
Despite implementing various welfare measures, the Congress was defeated only because of the divisive agenda of the BJP, he alleged.
BJP MPs and other leaders were afraid to open their mouth in front of Mr. Modi and hence one cannot expect any development work from them, Mr. Siddaramaiah said, and urged his party workers to reach out to voters to get Congress candidates elected to the Lok Sabha this time.
Former Union Minister C.M. Ibrahim said the Congress was ready to build the Ram Mandir. Unlike Mr. Modi’s false promise, the party would bring both communities together to accomplish the task, he said.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao, district in-charge Minister U.T. Khader, and former Ministers B. Ramanath Rai and Vinay Kumar Sorake were among those present.