The party chiefs of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party – Rahul Gandhi and Amit Shah – campaigned in Karnataka on Sunday. Elections to the state’s 224 Assembly seats are expected in a few months.
Gandhi flagged off an annual marathon to promote environment, water and tree conservation, called Vrukshathon, in the state’s northern district of Vijayapura. State Water Resources Minister MB Patil and the Congress’s Karnataka in charge, KC Venugopal, were present at the event. Gandhi even ran a few metres with the participants.
‘Modi waived businessmen’s loans’
Gandhi continued to reach out to the Lingayat community – considered to be the single largest community in the state, with an estimated population between 11.5% and 19%. Since their vote is widely believed to be decisive in 110 of the 224 Assembly constituencies, Lingayats are politically powerful.
Gandhi said Parliament was based on the values preached by the 12th century philosopher Basavanna, considered to be the founder of the Lingayat sect. “The last time I was in Karnataka, I went to the Anubhava Mantapa and realised that Basavanna’s thinking is there in our Constitution,” the Congress chief said, while addressing the Janashirvada Yatra at Chikkapadasalagi village in Bagalkot District. “It is true that Parliament building is in Delhi, but it is based on the values of Basavanna.”
Taking on the Narendra Modi-led government, Gandhi claimed that the Congress party had waived the loan of farmers but the prime minister had “waived the loans of select businessmen”.
“It has been four years since we asked him to give details about job creation under his government,” he added. “Modi had said that Rs 15 lakh will be deposited in the banks. Did he even manage to deposit Rs 10 in any account?”
‘Siddaramaiah government is irresponsible’
Meanwhile, BJP chief Amit Shah met the family of a farmer who had committed suicide in Bidar. He alleged that during Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s tenure, around 3,781 farmers across the state had committed suicide. “I have not seen a government as irresponsible and insensitive as this,” Shah said on Twitter.
The BJP chief addressed a gathering of sugarcane farmers in Humnabad. He said the state government was not letting the benefits of various central schemes reach the right beneficiaries. “The sugarcane farmers are paid their dues within 90 days in Uttar Pradesh, a law has been framed for the same,” Shah claimed. “Just like in Uttar Pradesh, sugar mills in Karnataka will have to clear dues of the sugarcane farmers within 90 days. This will be part of our election manifesto.”
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