Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Monday attacked former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over his remarks on consuming beef.
Though he did not name Mr. Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister said the “Congress leader from Mysuru was going around behaving as though that consumption of beef was a big achievement”.
Mr. Yediyurappa was speaking after inaugurating the Jan Sevak programme organised by the BJP to felicitate the recently elected gram panchayat members.
Mr .Yediyurappa addressed the former Chief Minister in singular and added that it does not befit him to speak about such people. He said such irresponsible statements are repeatedly made by the Congress leader to provoke the BJP and the media expects a response for the same from the BJP leaders.
However, he said there was no need for the BJP leaders to respond to such provocations. “Let us reply to the people by doing work”, he said.
He wondered what was the need for them to talk about Congress when the party was neither in power at the Centre nor in the State.
He said the BJP’s central leadership was happy over the party winning more gram panchayat seats and expressed optimism of the party performing well in the coming taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat elections. The party expects to win 140 to 150 seats in the next elections to the Legislative Assembly in the State.
BJP’s State pPresident Nalin Kumar Kateel, who claimed that the BJP had won the most number of seats in the gram panchayat elections, said the Congress was done in by its arrogance.
The Congress forgot Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of Gram Swaraj, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to implement Gandhiji’s ideals. Similarly, the Congress ‘forgot’ B.R. Ambedkar after winning elections.
Former Minister and Chamarajanagar MP V. Srinivas Prasad said people’s representatives should also become “sevaks” of the people. He said the efforts of Mr. Yediyurappa and Mr. Nalin Kumar Kateel were responsible for the good performance of the party in the gram panchayat elections.
Mysuru MP Pratap Simha said the victory of BJP leaders in the gram panchayat elections was crucial to create awareness about the programmes of Central and State government among the people in rural areas.
A host of leaders including Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekar, who is also the Minister in charge of Mysuru district; A.H. Vishwanath, MLC; S.A. Ramdas, L. Nagendra, Harshavardhan, MLAs; former MP C.H. Vijayshankar, BJP’s Mysuru City unit president Srivatsa; and the party’s Mysuru district unit president Mangala Somashekar were present on the occasion.
