Bommai, BSY launch BJP yatra, tear into Congress

RAICHUR: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa kick-started the party’s ‘Jana Sankalpa Yatra’ by launching a scathing attack on the Congress and presenting the state government’s report card to the public. The yatra will continue till December 2022 to set the tone for the party’s campaign for 2023 assembly polls. In the first phase, it will criss-cross over 50 Asembly constituencies.

“Congress is a sinking ship and many of their leaders are waiting to join the BJP,” CM Bommai claimed, while addressing a party convention in Gillesugur village of Raichur district. Hitting out at the opposition party, the CM said the Congress claims that it is a champion of the Dalits and the downtrodden, but what has it done to meet the demands of the SC /ST communities when it was in power.

“We have increased their quota, with utmost humility,” he said. Bommai termed the decision to increase the reservation for SC/STs historic. Hitting back, the Congress said the BJP’s ‘Jana Sankalpa Yatra’ was in response to its ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

Saffron party on backfoot after Cong yatra: Jairam

“Bharat Jodo Yatra is setting the narrative and the BJP is being pushed to the back-foot. Today, as we entered the 34th day of our yatra, walking through Chitradurga in Karnataka, the state BJP has launched Jana Sankalpa Yatra,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. The BJP, however, rubbished any comparison between the two. “Rahul Gandhi has started this yatra as his party faces an existential threat. The Congress party has already lost its presence in most of the states,” the CM said. Bommai hit out at the Congress leaders who called him a puppet in the hands of the RSS.

“I admire the RSS and am a follower of it. RSS is an organisation which is committed to the upliftment of the country. Siddaramaiah is following the dictates of a small boy (Rahul Gandhi). If he tells him to sit, Siddaramaiah sits, if he asks him to stand, Siddaramaiah stands. Siddaramaiah has no self-respect”, the CM said. Former CM Yediyurappa said Siddaramaiah is dreaming of becoming the chief minister again but that will never happen. “Rahul Gandhi, who levels allegations of corruption against the BJP government, has forgotten the Commonwealth Games scam, 2G scam and coal scam,” he said. Meanwhile, the BJP leaders tried to showcase the government’s achievements.