Rivals trade barbs on last day of Karnataka Assembly poll campaign

The last day of campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly polls was expectedly full of fireworks. Barbs and allegations were traded between the two principal rivals and audio clips, purportedly suggesting corruption, released.

In the morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward castes and slum workers of the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) via the Narendra Modi app. Congress President Rahul Gandhi held a press conference, as did BJP chief Amit Shah.

The BJP president also held a road show in Badami, one of two Assembly constituencies from which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting. In his press conference, Shah said mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, an accused in the illegal mining case, had nothing do with the BJP, adding, “What I have said is final”.

The BJP has fielded the Reddy brothers — G Somashekhara Reddy (Ballari) and G Karunakara Reddy (Harappanahalli) and their associates in the polls. The Congress released an audio clip of a conversation ostensibly related to the mining scam.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission was looking at whether it might have to countermand the election in the Rajarajeshwari Assembly constituency over recovery of thousands of ‘fake’ electoral identity cards from a flat there on Tuesday.

At his press conference, the Congress president said the PM’s attack on him over his comments that he could be prime minister in 2019 were to distract attention from the issues at hand. He said the election issue was not Rahul Gandhi.

“I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he can’t respond, he distracts,” Rahul Gandhi said in Bengaluru. Quoting an episode from the Gautama Buddha’s life on how to deal with an angry abusive person, the Congress chief said Modi felt threatened by him. “Modi has anger inside... he has anger for everybody, not just me ...and sees a threat in me,” Rahul Gandhi said. He said the BJP didn’t understand the term Hindu. 

To a question on the BJP raking up his mother and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origins, he said: “My mother is Italian. She has lived a large part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many people I see,” he said. “She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome,” Rahul Gandhi said.

The Congress president criticised the PM for his “silence” on incidents of killing of dalits and atrocities on them. On the Rafale fighter jet deal, he said: “Of course, it is a great deal, it’s absolutely a smashing deal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and you can see the effects of it in the amount of money being thrown around in the state (polls).”

Rahul Gandhi said the Modi government’s foreign policy was a failure, where China has increased its footprint in India’s neighbourhood, both in Nepal and the Maldives, while Russia had started supplying arms to Pakistan.

On nearly a dozen and a half Union ministers landing in Karnataka on the last day of campaigning, Gandhi said the BJP was in “panic” because they had realised that the Congress was doing things differently. In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena praised Rahul Gandhi for his dignified attack on the PM.

In his interaction in the morning, Modi said his government has made the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act more stringent. He said the Congress had no place for dalits and people from backward classes in its heart. Party sources said the PM has reached out to 2.5 million people in Karnataka through several video interactions on his app.

Shah also alleged the Congress was trying to win the Karnataka Assembly elections in an “undemocratic” manner. He said the BJP would win at least 130 seats in the 224-member Assembly.